Polk County Public Schools
Two Polk high school students were honored this fall at the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association’s (FRLA) “Salute to Excellence” Awards held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. The FRLA is a professional organization serving the state’s hospitality and tourism industry.
Taylor Behnke, a Lakeland resident and senior at Lakeland’s Kathleen High and Kelsey Pennington, a Winter Haven resident and senior at Eagle Lake’s Lake Region High both received a ProStart Hospitality Excellence Award and $2,000 in scholarship money.
ProStart is a student learning program focusing on training, job skills, tasks and results in the hospitality industry. ProStart was developed to increase the quality and employability of high school graduates to work in the foodservice and lodging professions. The ProStart program is meant to develop students for careers and higher education. ProStart combines a curriculum with on-the-job training.
$1,000 of their scholarship money was funded by the FRLA Education Foundation and that was matched by another $1,000 from Johnson and Wales University. Johnson and Wales University is a leading culinary arts college with campuses in Charlotte, Denver, North Miami and Providence, R.I.
Four Polk high school students won awards in a Florida Council of Teachers of English (FCTE) writing contest. Fifteen students statewide won awards and four were Polk County students. They were honored at the 2009 FCTE Awards Luncheon held in Orlando during October and received $100 in prize money, a signed novel by author and luncheon keynote speaker Sharon Draper and had their work published in an FCTE anthology.
Students winning 2009 FCTE writing awards were:
