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June 5, 2019Capital Region BOCES Celebrates Student Success
Several hundred Capital Region BOCES Career and Technical School students were honored Tuesday, June 4 during a ceremony at Proctors in Schenectady.
With a packed house of parents, family members, friends, BOCES faculty, staff and administrators, as well as educators from their home districts looking on, the approximately 400 seniors were honored for excellence in academics, as well as their chosen trades. Most of the students – typically more than 70 percent – will pursue college or technical school; others will go directly into the workforce into high-paying jobs they were recruited for while at BOCES.
The students completed more than 20 programs ranging from engineering technology and video game design to culinary, welding and automotive technology.
Speaker after speaker praised the graduates for going above and beyond to secure bright futures.
“While many of you will go on to college or technical school, many of you will also enter the workforce and will do so in good paying jobs thanks to the education you have received at Capital Region BOCES and your own dedication and passion,” said Dr. Valerie Kelsey, deputy director of Career and Technical Education at Capital Region BOCES. “You have done all of this while also completing the same requirements as your peers in your home school districts. You have taken and passed Regents exams and final exams while also learning how to style hair, maneuver heavy equipment, build a house, weld an I-beam and care for the ill.”
Dozens of awards ranging from college scholarships to program awards were handed out during the event. Below is list of scholarship recipients.
Center for Advanced Technology
- Gregory Knorr Memorial Scholarship — Madison Hurley, Schalmont, Theater Technology.
- SkillsUSA Scholarship — Connor Fancher, Cobleskill-Richmondville (CRCS), Welding and Metal Fabrication
- SkillsUSA Student of the Year – Connor Fancher
- American Red Cross Scholarship — Samantha Dell’Acqua, Entertainment Technology, Guilderland
Albany Campus
- SkillsUSA Student of the Year — Raven Bryant, Schenectady, Internet Application and Design
- Joe Fuchs Award — Hazem Ahmed, Schenectady, Retail and Office Services
- Jay Frankel Award — Michael Berroa, Guilderland, Building Trades
- Curtis Lumber Award — Nicholas Birch, Voorheesville, Building Trades
- Dawn Peacock Award — Tatianna Rivera Truesell, Culinary, Cohoes
- SUNY SCCC College Tech Prep Scholarship — Megan O’Toole, Voorheesville, Culinary Tech Prep
- Spring Water Bistro Award — Gabriella Novak, Watervliet, Culinary Tech Prep
- Lodging Management College Preparation Award — Abigail Shanley, Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk, Culinary Tech Prep
- William Kress Humanitarian Award — Samantha Dollar, Mohonasen, Culinary Tech Prep
- Assessment Technology Institute (ATI) Award — Mohonasen, Two-Year Sequence of Health Careers
- Bryant & Stratton Scholarship — Kody Lieb, Guilderland, Internet Application and Design
- SkillsUSA Area III Scholarship — Dan Moore, Watervliet, Internet Application and Design
- American Red Cross Scholarship — Kevin Karlok, Niskayuna, Welding and Metal Fabrication
* A list of program-specific awards will be released at a later date.
Tuesday’s ceremony honored Capital Region BOCES Career and Technical School graduates from the Albany Campus, as well as the Center for Advanced Technology at Mohonasen. A ceremony on June 12 at 9 a.m. at Cobleskill-Richmondville High School will honor the 80 students graduating from the Capital Region BOCES Career and Technical School Schoharie campus.
