WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange High School technology department will receive a prestigious High School Program Excellence Award, sponsored by the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association.
The award is one of the highest honors given to technology and engineering programs and is presented in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession and students in superior K-12 technology and engineering education programs around the world. As a result, award-winning programs serve as a standard for comparison and models for the development of other programs.
“We had to submit an application to our local New Jersey Technology and Engineering Educators Association first and then be chosen from all the New Jersey applicants to go on to the ITEEA recognition,” West Orange School District technology and engineering supervisor Ryan DelGuercio said. “Elements of the application included our program’s main objectives, what the program is designed to do for students, the nature of our daily activities, examples of activities, how the program is integrated within the overall and school curriculum, and how we are preparing our students for the future.”
On Sept. 29, NJTEEA Executive Director Frank Caccavale notified DelGuercio that “our local association’s awards committee met and discussed many fine candidates from across our state for this year’s High School Program Excellence Award presented by the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association. I was pleased this morning to submit the necessary paperwork to present the Program Excellence Award to West Orange High School.”
The award will be presented during the ITEEA conference in March 2022, but DelGuercio could not wait to share the news.
“Much of our success can be attributed to our amazing teachers who possess content knowledge and skills across several different subject areas, and our students who continually step up to the challenges that we present to them on a daily basis,” DelGuercio said. “These project-based challenges focus on real-world problem-solving situations taking place through authentic learning experiences.”
The technology and engineering staff in the West Orange School District includes teachers from West Orange High School and Edison, Liberty and Roosevelt middle schools.
High school technology and engineering educators are Deb Coen, Cindy Celi, Anthony Prasa, Rudy Petrella, Catherine Gardner and Max Grossman, and middle school technology and engineering educators are William Fatica, Charlotte Ayes and Anne Zhang.
“I am very proud of Mr. DelGuercio and the teachers who work in our technology and engineering departments in the West Orange School District,” WOHS Principal Hayden Moore said. “Our departments have become outstanding examples of the progressiveness that embodies our West Orange Schools.”
Photos Courtesy of WOSD
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