June 2024 Student Spotlights – Prattville, Autauga, & Elmore County

Daniel Pratt Elementary School second graders had a blast visiting the Alabama Safari Park this month! Students were able to learn about, interact with, and feed a wide variety of animals on this trip!

A pillar of the National Beta Club organization is community service. Fifth and sixth grade Junior Beta Club members at Daniel Pratt have been learning all year to look around and find needs in their neighborhoods and community so they can be a small part of the solution. Last month, members collected hundreds of items that they then donated to the Prattville Autauga Humane Society. PAHS serves our community by providing shelter and care for animals while working to find them new homes. Some students even volunteered their time cleaning kennels.

Two of ECTC’s Plumbing & Pipefitting seniors from Wetumpka High School achieved certifications this week. Nathaniel, a second-year student, passed NCCER Plumbing Level, and Devin, a third-year student and 2024 Plumbing & Pipefitting Student of the Year, passed NCCER Plumbing Level 2. He is the first ECTC student to accomplish this feat since the inception of the program! These industry certifications prepare them both to enter the workforce with more knowledge and skills than your average applicant which means better pay and a faster trajectory to a higher position within a company.

Students across Elmore County Schools’ CTE Programs were recognized at the 10th Annual Elmore County CTE Awards Banquet where 24 Students of the Year in their respective programs were named. From those students, one overall winner was chosen to represent the entire county. Juliana Peralta, a senior in JROTC from Stanhope Elmore High School, was named the 2024 Elmore County CTE Student of the Year and received a $1000 scholarship sponsored by Four Star Freightliner.

These students attended the 2024 Alabama SkillsUSA State Leadership Conference and SkillsUSA Championships in Mobile and placed in the top 3 in their respective competitions.  I’m attaching all the individual competition medalists as well as the two pictures that feature students from each program in groups.  The details about winners are listed below.

Thanks to our reading specialist, Mrs. Kay Yarnell, Daniel Pratt Elementary received a grant from the Autauga Education Foundation for students to connect their science learning to other subject areas and write across the curriculum. This grant paid for everything that 15 classes (2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades) needed to participate including incubators, candlers, brooder plates, and all the consumables. Teachers will be able to reuse the equipment every year. Students have been able to learn about the life cycle, heredity, temperature, humidity, and tons of vocabulary throughout the “egg”xperiment. Many have kept observation journals about the chicks’ development as they have candled the eggs regularly. Many have written stories and also done research on breeds of chickens, how to raise chickens, and how the life cycles of chickens compare to those of other animals such as butterflies, other oviparus animals. This would not have been possible without a partnership with Triple G Farm and Hatchery in Pine Level , which provided 300 eggs of many breeds of chickens, and also took the chicks back to their farm when they were a week old.

ECTC Building Construction students recently replaced the Elmore County Technical Center sign in front of the main building.

Girl Scouts of Southern Alabama (GSSA) would like to recognize Julia Smith for earning the Gold Award. Through the Gold Award, girls engage in a rigorous leadership process, as they tackle issues they are passionate about to create long-term, sustainable change. To earn the Gold Award, girls typically spend one to two years exploring the root cause of a local or global issue and partner with the community to create lasting solutions. Julia, a life-long animal lover, was heartbroken after visiting an animal shelter. She saw the hard work of the shelter staff to care for the animals and strays. But there was not enough room in the shelter for all the animals that came in. When she returned home, she researched animal shelter statistics in her community and Alabama. What she found shocked her. She connected the dots to find the root of the issue was pet owners’ lack of knowledge and responsibility. With this in mind, Julia got to work on an everlasting project aimed at improving the lives of shelter animals and shelter employees.
Julia held an assembly at her school, Prattville Christian Academy, to educate her peers. When asked how her project changed her, Julia responded, “My Gold Award project taught me a lot about my skills and what I am capable of, and it also taught me a lot about others. I learned a lot about communicating with my team and hearing the
concerns of others. In doing the research for my project, I was enlightened on the
perspective of shelter workers, and the many things that they do daily to make the lives
of these animals better. This experience has ultimately made me more confident in my
own abilities and has taught me many valuable skills such as communication and
problem-solving that I will be able to use for the rest of my life.”
Julia Smith has been a Girl Scout for 13 years and will soon graduate from Prattville
Christian Academy. She plans to attend Troy University to pursue a degree in
Elementary Education and Music Education with the hope of becoming an Elementary
music teacher.

So many of our young students take their learning and passion beyond the classroom as they apply skills to everyday life. DPES fourth grader, Caroline Suggs, has been representing her school & community this month by dazzling the sold out crowds of Pike Road Theatre Company’s Matilda the Musical. Caroline plays the part of Matilda in this enchanting story of a little girl with big dreams and an even bigger heart. The Russian lines she speaks in the show were taught to her by one of our multilingual 6th grade international students. Photo credit: Aubrie Moates, Hello Baby