Northwest Florida State College (NWFSC) was awarded two new grants to support students in their pursuit of innovative workforce and career education opportunities that lead to employment in high-demand industries.

The Florida Department of Education awarded the College $116,954 through the Pathways to Career Opportunities Grant to support apprenticeships in Computer Support and Computer Networking. With this grant, NWFSC will work with employers and CareerSource Okaloosa-Walton to make apprenticeship opportunities available to public and external organizations through outreach efforts, job fairs, collaborative partnerships and web-based activities. Tuition for the apprenticeship programs is paid by the employer, making them free to students.

The new apprenticeship programs are comprised of two major components: The Required Technical Instruction (RTI) and the On-the-Job Training (OJT). The RTI comprises 328 hours of classroom work taken in a computer lab at the College’s Fort Walton Beach Campus. Students will work with faculty members who are appropriately qualified in each of the various RTI classes, which are scheduled over two semesters. The OJT will occur at the apprentices’ respective employer’s job site. Each apprentice will be assigned a mentor who can provide the instruction needed to ensure they achieve the learning objectives set by the employer. The program anticipates at least five apprentices completing each program beginning in 2023.

The Florida Department of Education also granted $2 million through the Early College Career and Technical Education grant to expand the dual enrollment program at NWFSC’s Collegiate High School. The Collegiate High School is a public charter school located on the College’s Niceville campus. The innovative charter school enables 10th, 11th, and 12th-grade students to simultaneously earn a standard high-school diploma and a transferable two-year Associate in Arts degree or transferable college credits. As a public school, the Collegiate High School is free to students.

The Early College Career and Technical Education grant will extend Collegiate High School services to 9th-grade students and expand its degree tracks to include an Associate in Science (A.S.) in Computer Information Technology and an Associate in Science (A.S.) in Engineering Technology. These degree tracks will give students the opportunity to earn industry certifications to include CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, CompTIA Security+, Solidworks, National Coalition of Certifications Centers NC3, and Manufacturing Skills Standard’s Council’s CPT. Work-learning experiences to include internships within the local industries.

For more information on the apprenticeship programs the College offers or the Collegiate High School, please contact Cristie Kedroski at (850) 729-5210 or stratcomm@nwfsc.edu.

NWFSC President to Receive Phi Theta Kappa Shirley B. Gordon Award

Northwest Florida State College (NWFSC) President Dr. Devin Stephenson will be among the few college presidents to be honored with the Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction during Phi Theta Kappa’s 2022 PTK Catalyst convention, April 7-9, 2022, in Denver, Colo.
This Award of Distinction is PTK’s most prestigious award for community college presidents and is named in honor of the late Dr. Shirley B. Gordon, Phi Theta Kappa’s longest-serving Board of Directors Chair and long-time president of Highline Community College in Washington.

The award is given to college presidents who have shown strong support of student success on their campus by recognizing academic achievement, leadership, and service among high-achieving students at their colleges. Recipients are nominated by students on their campus and are only eligible to receive the award once over the course of their careers.
In an award letter, PTK President and CEO Lynn Tincher-Ladner stated Dr. Devin Stephenson was nominated for the award due to his work and dedication to “increase student success in entirely unfamiliar circumstances,” including racial and political unrest and a global pandemic that made 2021 one of the most challenging years in recent history. Dr. Stephenson’s nomination is “evidence of the gratitude NWFSC PTK students feel for supporting them and students like them—even during the most difficult times.”

By Kenneth Books

Julie Porterfield loves children. Because of that, when she was offered the chance to be Chief Executive Officer of the planned Children’s Advocacy Center 23 years ago, she jumped at the opportunity.

“I worked at the state attorney’s office,” she said. “I started as a receptionist and went to night school to get my bachelor’s and master’s degrees,” studying legal administration and public administration.

It was there that she got the chance to build the CAC.

“It came out of the state attorney’s office,” she said. The impetus was a severe child abuse case.

The goal was to put all services helping abused children under one roof.

“I started researching grants and organizing,” Julie said. “After a year, I was asked to be executive director. It seemed like a good fit. I absolutely love kids.”

The CAC officially opened in October 2000 with Julie at the helm. “We started with three employees,” she said. “Now we have 23.” In addition, the center has a regular roster of volunteers. But the children it serves could use more. “The center is always in need of volunteers,” Julie said. “There are lots of opportunities.”

A second facility, called the Pierce Family Children’s Advocacy Center, opened in DeFuniak Springs in spring 2017.

The CAC has a budget of about $2 million, Julie said, up from its original budget of about $180,000. The money comes from grants, state funding and 60 percent from the community. “We live in a very kind, generous community,” she said.

The need is great. Each year, the CAC helps between 700 and 800 children. But, Julie said, that’s probably just the tip of the iceberg.

“We only see reported cases of abuse,” she said. “I think there’s about two thirds more out there.”

In 2017, Julie said, the CAC added prevention efforts to its repertoire. A program called Child Safety Matters was begun in local schools, educating about 10,000 youngsters in 2021 from kindergarten through 12th grade. This has led to more disclosures from children about their circumstances. “They didn’t know who to tell,” Julie said.

“We focus on the more egregious cases,” Julie said, such as sexual abuse and physical abuse. “There are a lot of online predators,” she said. “With social media, it’s just rampant.” And the incidence of crimes against children rose during the pandemic, as schools were no longer open.

Some cases stand out due to their gruesome nature.

“Probably the worst was a girl with 90 percent of her body battered, burned and abused,” Julie said. “There was a lot of evil in that case. There was no rational reason.” The perpetrators, two women who were not the girl’s caretakers, received 20 and 15 years in prison, respectively, sentences Julie believes were too lenient. But the good news is, the girl was adopted and is a successful adult today.

“For me, I’m doing God’s work,” Julie said. “What has kept me here is you see a lot of good. If something bad is going to happen to kids, we’re here.”

But, she adds, “It would be great to hang a ‘Closed for Business’ sign. Our mission is to end child abuse.”

To learn more about the Children’s Advocacy Center, including its ongoing need for volunteers, check the website at ECCAC.org.

Last month members of the Walton County Democratic Environmental Caucus (WC DEC) traveled to the Recycling Center for Walton County, to meet with Billy McKee, Solid Waste Director for Walton County. The Caucus, a club made up of Democrats, Republicans and NPA’s, wanted to tour the facility and learn more about recycling in Walton in order to help make this process more efficient and improve the effectiveness of recycling in our Community.

Mr. McKee gave the members a tour and described the recycling process. Recycling is currently a voluntary process in Walton. Individual households must gather their recycling and deposit it at one of the 15 Recycling Trailer sites around the County. These trailers are then transported back to the Recycling Center located at the Landfill north of DeFuniak Springs for sorting. Mr. McKee stated that, on average, the recycle trailers bring in approximately 50 tons of loose, mixed material for sorting and recycling each month. Unfortunately, a large amount of the material that is put in these trailers is not recyclable (probably 50-60 percent).  This is primarily because of contamination by materials that are not recyclable and various kinds of debris and garbage that should not be put into the trailers. Once the contents of the trailers are emptied, the material is hand sorted, piece by piece, into collections that are then “baled” and stored for eventual pick up and transport to a Recycling Facility or Materials Recovery Facility (MRF).

Recycling is necessary to try and slow the expansion of landfills, but not really cost effective. It’s very important for individuals to take a few steps to make the process more efficient. The WC DEC created a flier and distributed these at the recent Recycle Amnesty Days and at Recycle Information booths. Recycling should be one of the last steps an individual takes. First, start by refusing single use plastics like water bottles and plastic bags. Reuse plastic food containers, and repurpose plastic containers.

The estimated cost of a single stream curbside recycling collection program along with the construction and operation of the necessary facilities to drop off and load into transport trucks (Transfer Station) would likely be into the many millions of dollars. Options to offset the costs include building a combined use Transfer Center for household garbage and recycling located somewhere closer to South Walton to save fuel and decrease drive time for collection trucks and their crews, pursuing public-private partnerships and grants like those through the Triumph funding, and encouraging end-market development for circular material management.

To learn more, or If you’d like to join in working to improve recycling in Walton County, send an email to WaltonEnvironmentalists@gmail.com.