#1StudentNWI: Students Going Above and Beyond at Porter County Career and Technical Center

#1StudentNWI: Students Going Above and Beyond at Porter County Career and Technical Center

The Porter County Career Center would like to thank Maya Villalobos for her heroic deeds on Wednesday, November 4th. One afternoon she was driving and saw an elderly woman, who was walking her dog, stop and collapse on the sidewalk.

Maya turned around, stopped the car and called 911 immediately. Maya was able to administer CPR to keep the woman’s heart pumping until the paramedics arrived. Maya gave this stranger an opportunity to survive because she, as a kind citizen, took her time to help save her life.

In this modern time, when disaster strikes to a stranger, most of us don’t stop to help. Maya could well have saved this woman’s life just for simply caring and leading an example in her community. Maya is currently one of our morning Health Occupation students and she is from Hobart High School. Our community thanks her for her awesome deed and also her incredible example to all of us to go out of our way for someone else, it might just save their life. Thank you, Maya.

The health classes also had another successful blood drive! It is amazing how involved every student is whether it be helping organize the blood drive or donating blood for our community. Just a reminder, they are working to be the #1 high school donor again this year for the Red Cross!

Coming up next quarter is also another blood drive, we only have about four a year so don’t miss out! Also, the business classes will be helping with the 500 Turkeys project this weekend! At the Valparaiso Nazarene Church, 300 volunteers will help distribute meals to the homeless so they can enjoy their thanksgiving just like we can, with full tummies and with our families! It is a great way for our business students to reach out to the community and to help families in need.

In our near future, The Depot will be ready to use! The Depot is the train station that was moved to our property to be remodeled and repurposed for classroom use. It is also large enough to hold bigger meetings and entire school assemblies without being too cramped in a single classroom. This project could take a couple years but is still an incredible work in progress!

The teacher shout out for this month is Mr. Avalos for all of his awesome involvement to motivate his students! He is one of the two automotive teachers who is now enjoying this fun job as a retired man.

Before the Career Center, Mr. Avalos had an exciting and interesting life. Born and raised in the south side of Chicago, moved away 18 years later because he sought to find more opportunity in Northwest Indiana. He also raised his son and two daughters in Northwest Indiana for a better education.

Mr. Avalos also ran for Trustee in Burnham and sadly lost by only 9 votes. He was also the president for the Hispanic Caucus in Burridge. He is done there, he was also a business agent for the Teamsters, a union that motivates and educates workers toward a higher standard of living, and was also an official.

He also taught religious education for 33 years at St. Paul’s Children Literacy. After accomplishing all of that Mr. Avalos is now retired and enjoys the days he spends at the Career Center. His favorite part of teaching is, “Watching the light bulb go off when the students learn something new.”

He also said that seeing the smile on a student after they get something and enjoy it makes it all worth wild.

For the student of the month, Mr. Avalos (the teacher mentioned above) was asked to choose 2 outstanding students in his program. Mr. Avalos chose James Bixenman and Weston Norman who are both seniors in the automotive program. James Bixenman attends Hebron High School and is also a second-year student with the automotive program and has been very successful so far!

When asked what his best thing about his class he said it was when the teachers helped him find a body shop to work at and his teachers also helped him pick a school to attend. James only had positive things to say about his teachers and the program. James will attend either Vincennes University or Ivy Tech in the fall of 2016 and his favorite color is blue.

Weston Norman was also an outstanding student chose to be featured. Weston is a senior in high school and he attends Kouts High School. This is his second year in the program and also had nothing but positive things to say about the program. He appreciates the program because he has met so many awesome people and has made a lot of friends. Weston’s first year in the program he met his best friend and that was another thing he appreciates. Weston loves the experience and loves cars; his favorite care is a 1970 Chevelle.