Florida’s Manufacturers & Educators Receive Special Recognition at the 7th Annual Manufacturers Summit
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| Dave Lintner |
Dave Lintner was named Manufacturing Secondary Educator-of-the-Year. Lintner who is an industrial education and technology teacher at Ridge Community High School in Davenport, FL is a former engineer who has taught industrial technology in Michigan and Florida for over three decades. He brings insider’s knowledge of having worked in various segments of manufacturing into the classroom and says “integrating that valuable experience into teaching has been very important as well as a real plus with all the various projects his students have completed over the years.”
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| Dean Eavey at the MAF Summit |
On the post-secondary level, Dean Eavey, associate professor of business and technology division and program manager for electronics engineering technology and computer integration manufacturing (CIM) at Gulf Coast Community College (GCCC) in Panama City will receive the Manufacturing Post-Secondary Educator-of-the-Year Award. Eavey who has served in this capacity for the past ten years is part of a $500,000 grant from the Department of Labor geared to promote manufacturing training in Florida. His driving force lies in preparing students to enter the field of high-tech manufacturing and witness them succeed. This he says helps them pursue rewarding careers and helps the country remain globally competitive.
At the legislative level he played a pivotal role in formulating the Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Act which changed the deployment of career and technical education programs in school districts throughout Florida. This spearheaded the establishment of CAPE career academies that have allowed students to operate in small learning communities focused on earning national industry certifications. Hoelke has also supported Brevard County School District’s career and technical efforts by providing paid summer internships for several Brevard County’s engineering technology teachers, and has been instrumental in establishing inroads that have facilitated a number of opportunities for students and incumbent workers across the state.
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| Art Hoelke at the MAF Summit |
Art’s partnerships with various educators and industry leaders also paved a path for Heritage High School in Brevard County to offer the M.S.S.C industrial credential that articulates 15 credit hours into Brevard Community College’s two year A.S. degree in engineering technology. Art also provided numerous hours of community support while serving on the advisory committee for Space Coast High Schools’ engineering academy. He worked closely with the academy’s teachers, volunteered Knight’s Armament as a field trip site for students, and facilitated national manufacturing experts to make local presentations to students. Furthermore, he is intricately involved with Reusable Resources—another organization that teaches kids to build products from recycled materials.
Watch the video on GCCC’s Robotics CIM program
Just to make a point of clarification. On the Heritage high school this was a team effort and in the beginning this is when I had set up a meeting with Ralph Pophell and Dr. DaPatri and at this meeting was Margaret Lewis who is the CTE director for Brevard County. It was through this initial conversation that Dr. Eric Roe came and met with Margaret Lewis and Myself and a few others. This was in my opinion the start of the process to bring more certificate programs to Brevard County and also bring more of an emphasis to manufacturing.
So this was not a single handed effort but a collaborative effort from many as is in most initiatives that are taking place in the education arena. Just want to point this out as I do not want to have any one offended by such a bold statement.
Also a point on the CAPE Act. This as you know is something the state has control over and we had worked with Dr. Eric Roe as well on this and Eric worked very hard to make sure that the language was in the CAPE Act so the school system could still support the initiatives of the manufacturing sector. Again I hate to try to say this effort is all on one person and have found that through the efforts of many we have made great strides to where we are today.
Now as a manufacturer I have spent a lot of hours with Dr. Eric and the Banner Center for manufacturing and have spent a lot of hours at Tallahassee during the Capitol days to try to convince legislators we need to continue to help support the efforts of the Banner Centers and that manufacturing continues to have a need for a qualified work force. There have been many hours spent on meetings and many discussion groups to bring us to this point today. So I just want to make sure credit go’s where it should go and sorry for the update but I just wanted to make sure nobody took the information written wrong.
Thank you,
Art Hoelke
VP/GM
Knight’s Armament Company
701 Columbia Blvd.
Titusville, FL 32927
thank you for sharing