GENTRY -- The Arkansas Department of Education held its first annual Social Media Contest/Campaign for Promoting CTE (Career and Technical Education) in Arkansas. Students were asked to use three forms of social media platforms to promote CTE in Arkansas. Miss Wilson's social media class had three students who participated in this competition. Jacob Truman, Jonathan Brinkley and Ashley Guess submitted their project in March. They were notified several weeks ago that they were in the top four teams in Arkansas and were invited to Little Rock on Tuesday, April 17, to present their campaign to judges from the Department of Education, along with members from Channel 11 TV affiliates from Little Rock.
The students had a little less than two weeks to prepare their presentation and present their project which had been submitted earlier. They had to reflect on the data collected and the success rate of the campaign. The Gentry team came home with second place and a prize of $2,000.
The money has to be spent and used in the business classroom following federal Perkins guidelines, according to Joni Wilson, the group's instructor.
The first-place team was from Dardanelle, which won $3,000. In third place was Alma, winning $1,000. In fourth place was Bald Knob, which also won $1,000.
GHS students mainly focused on the Facebook platform and added the page "Promoting CTE in Arkansas." Their page featured a video with Derek German, 2017 graduate of GHS. Derek was very involved in the CTE courses and student organizations such as FBLA. Derek spoke about how CTE courses helped him prepare for his future and his current status as a college student.
When asked what they took away from this project, the GHS students responded, "Time management and working as a team were huge factors. We didn't realize how much time this project was going to take."
Jacob Truman said, "I really learned a lot about working with others. We are all very different and had to learn to compromise and come up with the best solution."
Wilson, the group's instructor, replied, "I am very proud of these students. They did a great job overall. Their campaign and computer work was excellent, but I think I am most proud of their speaking skills and presentation skills which were displayed at Little Rock. The computer skills came more natural to the kids but, once they made the finals and had less than two weeks to prepare for the presentation, I saw the maturity and confidence rise in each one of them. They are all quiet, soft-spoken students and public speaking is really out of their comfort zone. To see them stand in front of state officials just made my heart swell with pride. Their placement of second and cash prize of $2,000 just made it even better."
Jacob is a sophomore and Jonathan and Ashley are juniors, so they all three still have room to grow even more and enter future competitions before graduating from high school," Wilson added.
Community on 05/09/2018