On Tues., Apr. 28, Mr. Frye honored four Downey High Career and Technical Education students, in the Career Center, for winning three bronze medals and a silver medal at the Career Technical Education Student Recognition Competition held in the month of March.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education sponsors this competition and was formerly called the Regional Occupation Program. The competition consisted of 125 participants from 23 different school districts in California. Out of the 125 participants, the four Downey High Students that participated each won a medal in their categories.

“These young ladies worked very hard,” counselor Michael Frye said. “It was really hard getting them all prepared together because of their schedules, but they worked through it.”

Silver medalist Natalie Turcios, 12, took the CTE Health Occupations course her first semester of her senior year. Already having an interest in the medical field, this class only furthered Turcios’ desire to join the field after high school.

“It was really cool to present about something that I’m really passionate about at the competition,” Turcios said. “I had to present about the Health Occupations class such as how it impacted me and how it motivated to pursue a career in that subject.”

As silver medalist, Turcios was honored at the LA County Office of Education Board meeting on Tues., May 5. She received a certificate, a scholarship, and a silver medal at this meeting honoring winners from the CTE Student Recognition Competition.

Bronze medalist Briana Reed, 12, joined the CTE Professional Dance program her sophomore year after deciding that she wanted to sharpen her dance skills. Reed learned how to apply skills she used in dance to the real world such as effectively communicating with others and problem solving.

“Competing in the LACROP competition was actually my favorite because it gave me a chance to showcase what I’ve learned and it was great to be in an atmosphere full with people who love dance as much as I do,” Reed said. “It helped me realize that dance is something that I want to make a career out of.”

Senior Genisis Hardiman has been a part of the CTE Professional Dance program since her sophomore year and won a bronze medal with Reed in the Professional Dance category. As part of the school’s dance team, Hardiman had a passion for dance before coming into the class and used dance as a way of expressing herself.

“As a teacher’s aid and choreographer for the CTE Dance class I’ve become more patient and understanding with people,” Hardiman said. “I’ve also become stronger in choreography and it really has become something that I enjoy doing and thinking about pursuing.”

The youngest from the four, junior Fatima Lima, also won a bronze medal along with Reed and Hardiman. Lima won her medal in Financial Services and is currently working for a real estate agency through this program.

“In the future I want to become a broker,” Lima said. “This program seemed like the perfect fit for me since it’s a subject that I want to follow later on in life.”

Downey High School offers many different CTE programs for students of all ages. Other than the ones mentioned, these programs include Principles of Education, Hospitality/Hotel Management, Retail Marketing, Sports Medicine, Law Enforcement and many others are all offered by the Downey Unified School District.