Nearly 60 Lima Senior DECA students are headed to the Ohio DECA Career Development Conference in March after placing in yesterday’s Ohio DECA District 3 Career Development Conference.

Below are the District results. First through fourth place advance to state.

1st Place Winners

Haley Shafer – Principles of Business Administration

Dylon Rodgers – Principles of Finance

Honesty Brown – Principles of Marketing

Quintel Wilson – Food Marketing

Javier Brito-Diaz – Restaurant and Food Service

Ella Brayton & Alex Engberg – Buying & Merchandising Team

Isaiah Russell & Diante Griffin – Sports & Entertainment Team

Keegan Halliday, Madeline Emerick and Tillie Nelson – Integrated Marketing Campaign, Service

Jada McClendon & Cece Suarez – Innovation Plan – Jada McClendon & Cece Suarez

2nd Place Winners

Carlos Harmon – Principles of Finance

Alexis Burns – Principles of Hospitality

Alex Bennett – Automotive Services

Meghan Nuckles – Business Finance

Zaniya Smith – Hotel & Lodging

Gage Hipsher – Human Resources

Je’Niya Allen – Quick Serve Restaurant

Matrice Gaddy & Nick Sinthalaphone – Business Law Team

Cecil Benton & Jareon Mayo – Financial Services Team

Evie Williams & Els Nelson – Hospitality Team

Reece Waithe & Avion Simpson – Travel & Tourism

Jourdyn Rawlins – Start-Up Plan

Caden Burkland, Ashley McGue & Alyssa Rader – Integrated Marketing Campaign-Product

3rd Place Winners

Zoila Hale – Principles of Business Administration

Alyssa Warthem – Principles of Marketing

Brianna Battle – Apparel & Accessories

Mekhi Chandler – Automotive Services

Vivian Grant – Business Services

Kyle Figgins – Personal Financial Literacy

Isaah Moore – Sports & Entertainment

Mikel Walker & Dongal Calhoun – Entrepreneurship Team

Natashia & Latashia Glenn – Financial Services

LJ Lawson & Dom Peterson – Sports & Entertainment Team

Addie Delph – Hospitality Selling

Tatum Twining, Logan Davenport & Anna Engberg – Integrated Marketing Event

4th Place Winners

Tommie Jefferson – Apparel & Accessories

Mariah Watkins – Business Services

Kenny Melton – Marketing Communications

Marcus Brown – Personal Financial Literacy

Nyla Denson – Retail Merchandising

Kiya Sigman & Alivea Buchanan – Marketing Management

Dakota Miller – Hospitality Selling

5th Place Winners 

Lynnae Wheeler – Principles of Hospitality

Alijah Kohler – Entrepreneurship Series

Khalil Luster – Marketing Communications

Amir Bryant – Sports & Entertainment Series

Alleah Julian & Mike Snow – Marketing Management

Lima Senior High School officials announced a new career tech program coming to the school next fall and efforts to get students thinking about career tech and learning important skills at a younger age.

The announcements came during a Thursday press conference to kick off Career Tech Month. It was held in the school’s construction trades classrooms/lab, one of 11 Career Tech programs offered to juniors and seniors at Lima Senior.

The school has developed a Skills in a Box concept in an effort to get elementary-age students familiar with Career Tech as well as give them the skills needed to enter the program when they get to high school.

Each Career Tech instructor came up with five skills their students need to know to be successful in their programs. Officials took those skills and developed age-appropriate activities. They will be put in a “box” at each elementary school for teachers to use with students.

“The point is to not only help students obtain new skills which they should then have mastered by the time they are in high school, but hopefully they will also figure out what type of skills they are best at and most passionate in pursuing,” said Courtnee Morris, the school’s new head of Career Tech.

This should help with placing students in the right programs when they get to high school and also in keeping them in the program and successfully completing it, Morris added.

The Skills in the Box leads nicely into the existing Career Connections programs in middle school. The program gives students a deeper introduction into possible careers. Once in high school, every freshman takes a College and Career Readiness Class, which helps determine a student’s progression and classes he or she will take at Lima Senior.

The plan is to now add an introduction class into one of the three areas of Career Tech: Industrial Manufacturing Trades, Human Health and Public Services and Communication Technology. Career Tech instructors will teach parts of that class. Sophomores will then take a Career Exploration class where they get hands-on experience in the Career Tech area they are interested in.

New program coming

A new Audio Engineering Technology program will be available to students in the fall. The program will teach the basics of music theory, audio recording and production. Students will learn how to run a recording studio and to produce audio for video productions. Lima Senior will have its own recording studio on site.

The program joins agricultural education, auto technology, construction trades, culinary and food service management, early childhood education, engineering technology, graphic communications, marketing education (DECA), patient care technology, welding and metal fabrication, and World of Work.

Plans are currently in the works to add a Media Video Production program in a couple years.

Career Tech Month is celebrated across the country in February. The Lima City Schools will spend the month highlighting its career tech programs and students on its website and social media pages.

“Career Tech is such a vital piece of what we do here at Lima Senior High School,” Superintendent Jill Ackerman said. “It provides an additional level of options for our students, and our programs set a foundation and pathway for student success, whether their future is the workforce or higher education.”

Thank you to all those who helped to make our Holiday Toiletry Collection a success this year.

We were able to give every fifth and sixth grade student a bag of supplies before winter break. Schools housing seventh and eighth-grade students also received supplies to give to students as needed.

Our staff went above and beyond in donating items. Several local companies and organizations also made this effort possible. Special thanks to the Liberty Arts Magnet PTS, Sullivan Insurance, Procter & Gamble, Lima Kiwanis Club, OSU-Lima,  Dr. Jeffrey Blanford, Lima Husky Refinery and the Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce.