Rural High School Students First in Nation to Earn STEM/STEAM Stackable Industry Certifications
Haven, Kansas May 6, 2019 – Three Haven High School Students are the first in the nation to earn Associate Level Web Developer International Industry Certifications by stacking certifications from two separate courses at Haven High School. Additionally, nine more students earned Web and Mobile Application Industry Certification and three others earned Web Designer Industry Certifications.
Graduating with Industry Recognized Certifications
All of these students will be graduating high school with industry recognized certifications, which is quite an accomplishment.
Haven High School is in its fifth year teaching these courses and providing students the opportunity to earn credentials. This continued success is led by the Haven Business Education Department, and the business educator responsible for this program is Jessica Wilson.
Steve Waddell, founder of CTe Learning, was asked to visit Haven HS and present on behalf of the Web Professionals Association (WebProfessionals.org) a banner to recognize Haven High School as the most credentialed school in KS by the Web Professionals. Haven students have earned more industry recognized certifications than any other school in Kansas.
Currently, Haven High School runs both the Web and Mobile Application Development and Web Development for Business courses by CTeLearning.com. Each of these courses are stackable and enable students to earn an industry recognized certification.
Power of Rural STEM and Business Education
Steve Waddell, founder of CTe Learning, said, “Never underestimate education in the rural parts of our country or the dedicated educators, administrators and students who thrive there. These students here today are gaining world-class credentials from an international professionals association. This is not just another test delivered by a testing company. These students have received an industry recognized certification. This shows that high tech, high-demand career education can happen and should happen everywhere. We love being a part of rural STEAM/STEM and business education.”
“Wherever a student calls home should not restrict their opportunity to discover their passions and talents for these high-demand STEM careers. Only a few short years ago the wisdom of the day was that to work in these types of technology careers you had to leave the rural community and move to suburban or urban spaces. Times have changed, those days are gone, and Jessica’s students are proving that.”
The Path to Industry Recognized Certifications
Besides the Web Development for Business and the Web and Mobile Application Development courses, Ms. Wilson teaches other career and technical education courses, including Business Entrepreneurship and Coding and 3D Video Game Design. This recent success is demonstrating that Haven High is a regional STEM/STEAM/CTE powerhouse.
In these courses, students learned web and app coding, created sites and apps, and built a future-ready portfolio with real-world projects. As of today, they get to add industry credentials they can show college recruiters or future employers.
“As educators we thrive in reaching for what seems to be impossible, especially when it comes to doing what is best for our students and helping them be successful. It is always appreciated to have administration that help to support you in these kinds of endeavors. I am very lucky here at Haven and I just want to extend a thank you to Principal Travis Moore, Curriculum Director Marty Nienstedt and our Superintendent Clark Wedel for their ongoing support of this fantastic opportunity. It is with their help and the determination and hard work of my students that we are able to continue the tradition of excellence here at Haven High. As much as I appreciate the recognition, as their teacher none of this would be possible without the work my students put into their learning and their support of one another,” said Jessica Wilson.
The certification earned by the Haven HS students is delivered by WebProfessionals.org, the premier industry association for Web Developers, Web IT and Connected App developers. WebProfessionals.org’s Executive Director Mark DuBois and educational team were key in creating and maintaining the international industry certifications, which are optional for students in the course to pursue.
Many students take the course only for high school credit. Those who want to gain the coveted industry recognized credential must receive a minimum course grade, meet all project performance requirements, exhibit professionalism in all class activities and receive a recommendation to sit for the exam by their course instructor. Ms. Wilson’s students took the proctored exam at Haven High.
“We welcome the Haven students to the exciting world of web technologies. We are very proud of Ms. Wilson’s students. Haven has an incredibly strong program and we continue to see students succeeding at Haven and earning industry certifications year after year. All of us here at WebProfessionals.org love seeing students take these first important steps towards high-demand STEAM/STEM careers in web and app development,” said Mark DuBois, Executive Director of the Web Professionals Association.
Courtesy of Haven High School Yearbook
Congratulations for Earning Stackable International Industry Certifications
The three Haven High School Students who are the first in the nation to earn their Associate Level Web Developer International Industry Certification by stacking certifications from two separate CTeLearning.com courses at Haven HS are:
- Kelton DeBord: Junior
- Caleb Fredrickson : Senior
- Ronnie Voss: Sophomore
The nine newly minted Mobile Application Industry Certification recipients are:
- Joshua Clodfeldter: Freshman
- Ethan Earls: Freshman
- Dakota Fox: Sophomore
- Z’Hakari Huffman: Sophomore
- Maverick Lane: Freshman
- Cole Long: Freshman
- Nathan Schmidt: Sophomore
- Holden Schneider: Freshman
- Cole Zongker: Freshman
Congratulations to Jessica Wilson’s 2019 class of industry recognized certification recipients. We can’t wait to see the class of 2020.