Press Release

Metropolitan Education District 760 Hillsdale Ave San Jose, CA 95136 March 17, 2009

Contact: Michelle Alaimo Communication Specialist (408) 723-6464 malaimo@metroed.net

CCOC Students Place in Top Three at Rotary Enterprise Leadership Conference

Two Central County Occupational Center (CCOC) students participated on teams that placed second and third at this year’s Enterprise Leadership Conference (ELC), held March 11 to 13 in Asilomar.

Five CCOC students were among the nearly 100 area high school students chosen to attend this year’s ELC conference sponsored by the San Jose and Los Gatos Rotary Club. At the three day, all expense paid conference, students worked in teams of eight to create a virtual business. CCOC Probation & Legal Careers student, Marx Reyes’ team placed second and CCOC Computer Technology Careers student, Jeffrey Leong’s team placed third.

“This was an awesome experience,” Marx Reyes, said. “Every student who has the chance to go to ELC, should go.” He added that they learned so much about teamwork, math, public speaking, and business.

Reyes’ team came up with a product that was a belt that would play classical music to a baby in utero. The mother could also monitor the baby’s heartbeat from the belt. Leong’s team designed a shirt that would heat up automatically when put on—similar to a heating blanket but operated on batteries.

The ELC Conference included team building activities and networking with business executives that the students normally would not have had a chance to meet or interact with. Other attendees from CCOC included Brooke Chanel Philips, from Interior Design; Manpreet Jandir from Health Occupations; and Edward Dorado from Forensic Investigation.

The students said they weren’t sure what to expect from the conference when they learned they had been chosen to go. “I thought it would be more school stuff—like lectures,” Reyes said. They all said that they were surprised how much fun it was to learn about and build a virtual business from the bottom up in a three day span.

“It was a lot of work but so much fun,” Philips said. “If you are determined to do something with your future, then go to the conference.”

CCOC, a unit of MetroED, is open to high school juniors and seniors from six high school districts: Campbell Union High School District, East Side Union High School District; Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District; Milpitas Unified School District; San Jose Unified School District; and the Santa Clara Unified School District.

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MetroED is the largest career-oriented educational organization in Santa Clara County, comprised of high school and adult occupational, academic and community programs.

MetroED annually provides 30,000 diverse students with the skills to help them be productive, income-earning and tax-paying contributors to Silicon Valley.