GreatNews.Life Student Voices: Winter creeps closer for the ACC

What recently happened?

On November 3, the Area Career Center (ACC) had its Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser and Survive Alive House open house.

During the open house, the Culinary class sold premade dinners in order to raise money for Skills USA and Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA). Skills USA and HOSA are  competitions that offer students at the ACC a chance to compete against other students in their field and have their work judged by a specialist in that area.

“We fed over 100 families, and the majority of those funds are going toward Skills USA, HOSA, and the Survive Alive House itself,” said Jorge Lopez, a capstone Culinary student.” It was a lot of fun and it was a good opportunity to help our school.”

These competitions are attended every year by a great number of students at the ACC. As a result, the Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser was a way to offset some of the cost on the students. 

What’s coming up?

On November 25, the ACC is performing a Cardiac Arrest Drill. The drill is the last step in becoming a Project ADAM safe school. Project ADAM is a national organization that works to prevent deaths in communities by training and preparing people in case of an emergency.

“We practice for tornadoes and fires, but we need to know what to do if there’s a cardiac arrest,” said Ryan Cogdill, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) instructor. “Usually people don’t know what to do and what normally fails are the bystanders.”

The drill will include a scenario in which a student simulates having a sudden heart attack and the faculty will have to determine who will get the Automated External Defibrillator (AED), who will do Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and who will call emergency services.

Once the drill is complete, the ACC will be the first school in the Lake County Area to have this certification.

In February, the Dental Career class will travel to Chicago to visit the McCormick Place. Students will meet a number of vendors and prominent businesses in the dental industry.

“It gives them a chance to see all the new products that are out there and to talk to sales representatives that are going to be present,” said Kristy Johnson, Dental Careers instructor. 

This is an annual trip that the class partakes in. It offers the students a different perspective on all the different careers that can be explored in the dental field besides what they see in class.

Staff spotlight:

Gianna Mirowski is the Early Childhood instructor at the ACC. She has been teaching for about eight years. Originally, she taught kindergarten, but she started teaching at the ACC about four years ago.

“I loved teaching kindergarten,” Mirowski said. ”Teaching little kids was something I was really passionate about. Then I realized that I really enjoy trying to help other teachers make their classrooms better.”

Mirowski attended the ACC and took the Early Childhood program herself when she was in high school. Even after she graduated, she was still very involved in the school from helping out with Skills USA to guest speaking. When her former Early Childhood teacher left, she asked if Mirowski wanted to take over.

“I saw how much good the program was doing and I wanted to be a part of that,” Mirowski said. “Now I get to take all of my passion for teaching and translate it over to helping kids that will hopefully be teachers one day.”

Her hobbies include reading, and she has an interest in space. Mirowski has always known that teaching was the path for her, but if she had to choose something else to pursue it would have been something in engineering or space. 

Student spotlight:

Andreaz Shanklin is a first-year student in the welding program at the ACC. He was offered a choice to come to the ACC before the start of junior year and he took it. At first, Shanklin was going to choose electrical engineering, but he figured that wasn’t for him. 

“I choose welding because I really like the teacher and the program,” Shanklin said. “I figured it would be a better fit for my future.”

At the moment, his class is working on pipes. One of Shanklin’s favorite projects was working on T-joints since it incorporated everything that they have learned so far.

“I’ve learned a lot about hard work and perseverance,” Shanklin said. “If you mess up, you just have to keep going.”

Shanklin’s hobbies include sports such as wrestling, football, shot put and discus. In his free time, he enjoys playing video games with his friends. 

After high school, Shanklin plans to attend a Universal Technical Institute and go into trades.