Educational, economic and governmental leaders throughout South Carolina gathered for a four-day summit focusing on workforce development and career preparedness in Greenville on June 21-24. During the SC Education and Business Summit, prestigious awards were presented to an Horry County Schools’ (HCS) program director and a student enrolled in the digital communications major at the Academy for the Arts, Science and Technology (AAST).
Ben Hardee, HCS’ Director of Career and Technology Education (CATE), was named the Administrator of the Year by the SC Association of Career and Technology Education. This award recognizes full-time career and technical administrators, program specialists, and coordinators who have made significant contributions toward innovative, unique and novel programs and continued improvement of existing CATE programs.
While at the Summit, Hardee, along with Mary Beth Roach, HCS’ work-based learning specialist, hosted a professional development seminar about a summer program for rising freshmen where students were invited to attend a four-day summer session at the Academy for Technology and Academics to learn about non-traditional career majors offered throughout the district.
Aaron Williams, a digital communications major at AAST was recognized at the Summit as the 2015 CATE Technology Champion for the Waccamaw Region, representing Horry, Georgetown, and Williamsburg counties. South Carolina’s Regional Career Specialists, along with the State Department of Education, recognized the top career and technology education student in each of the 12 Regional Career Specialists’ service areas.
Pictured are Robin Jones, Principal of AAST; Molly Spearman, SC Superintendent of Education; Aaron Williams, AAST Student
