The Warren County Aspire program celebrated the accomplishments of its graduates recently with an outdoor ceremony at Armco Park. Fifteen graduates and their families shared smiles and tears of joy as they realized their dreams of finally earning their high school credentials and starting on new career paths. Many faced challenges of balancing school work with family and work commitments, but all said it was worth it.

The Aspire program served 329 students with more than 12 hours of instruction in the 2021-22 school year. Of those, 190 were students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages from 40 countries. Languages spoken by those students include Albanian, French, Spanish, Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Czech, Kyrgyz, Russian, Tajiki, Gujarati, Portuguese, Turkish, Farsi, and Ukrainian.

WCCC Aspire has seen 25 GED/HiSET/Adult Diploma Program graduates so far this year, with four ADP graduates earning their State Tested Nursing Assistant credential, five ADP students in process and six HiSET testers and 15 GED testers achieved High School Equivalence. The students ranged in age from 17-73.

Twenty-nine of the Aspire students also earned credentials from the Ohio Department of Education Industry Recognized Credentials while enrolled or within one year of exit. Twenty-eight of WCCC Aspire’s 2020-2021 students have self-reported that they are enrolled in postsecondary education.

Fourteen WCCC students placed in the Top 10 at Business Professionals of America National Conference, held in Dallas, TX in early May, including one First Place team. A total of 19 students placed.

Alex Atallah and Jude Hoy earned First Place in Computer Animation. They are in Cassie Vitale’s Digital Media Arts class at Springboro. You can see their award-winning animation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE7jKN6b7i8

Others who placed in the Top 10 include:

Virtual Software Engineering Team Sirojiddin Aripov and Matthew Barnett, Third Place, IT at Kings, Mr. Holtrey

Justin Garter 4th Place Network Administration Using Cisco, IT at Kings, Mr. Holtrey

Network Design Team Kaleb Dereoun, John Yates, Brayden Goodyk, Tim Williams, all Springboro, 4th Place, Cybersecurity WCCC@Atrium, Mrs. Marks

John Yates, Springboro, 7th Place Cybersecurity/Digital Forensics, Cybersecurity WCCC@Atrium, Mrs. Marks

Donivan Elllis, Lebanon, 7th Place Linux Operating System, Cybersecurity WCCC@Atrium, Mrs. Marks

Virtual Branding Team Jack Allison and Jackson Pennington, 7th Place, Digital Media Arts at Kings, Mrs. Shields

Adam Perkins, Waynesville, 9th Place Computer Modeling, WCCC Digital Media Arts, Mr. Deeter

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WCCC Adult Education Phlebotomy student Milissa Shirley recently passed her Certified Phlebotomy Technician exam. She is a resident of Miamisburg and is employed at BioLife in Middletown as a Phlebotomist and has just been promoted to a trainer. “Milissa is a real go-getter who came to us to perfect her skills,” Coordinator Teresa Orloff said. “She has such a kind heart and knack for empathy that sets her above the pack.” “I could not have done it without all of the support I have gotten at WCCC,” Milissa said. “I made a major career change by getting this certification, having been a licensed insurance agent since 2008. I look forward to seeing where this takes me and have truly found a work ‘home’ in Bio-Life.”