Press Release

Metropolitan Education District 760 Hillsdale Ave San Jose, CA 95136 March 14, 2008

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

CCOC Students take top Honors at Rotary Enterprise Leadership Conference

Two Central County Occupational Center (CCOC) Health Occupations students participated on teams that placed first and second at this year's Enterprise Leadership Conference (ELC), held March 5 to 7 in Asilomar.

Three CCOC students were selected to be among 96 area high school students to attend this year's ELC 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 Health Occupations students Valeria Flores and Nathan Martinez were on teams that placed first and second and on the only two teams that created a health related product.

Flores' team won first place for creating a bracelet and pill box system that would remind people when to take prescribed medication.

"We came up with our product called the Pill Sergeant after researching how many people - usually elderly - that died because of toxicity," Flores, a junior at Yerba Buena High School, said. "We were required to come up with a product that filled a need and ours did and would give those that use it a peace of mind."

Martinez' team placed second for developing a product called BiBo (Breathe in, Breathe out). Martinez, a junior at Andrew Hill High School, said it was a recent lecture on one way valves in his CCOC Health Occupations class that led to the idea.

Based on the breathing mask one way valve concept that Martinez learned about in Health Occupations CCOC, his team developed BiBo-a tiny valve placed in the mouth that gave up to 30 minutes of oxygen without the use of an oxygen tank. He added that the judges thought their product idea would be very useful.

CCOC Auto Body Repair student Larry Haywood and a junior at Lincoln High School, said that while his team did not place in the top three, he learned a lot about what it takes to own and operate a business-which is one of the goals of the conference. All three students said they did not realize how important math is in the business world. "It was a real eye-opener," Haywood said. "Math is involved in almost every part of business."

The all expense paid trip included team building activities and networking with business executives that the students normally would not have had a chance to meet or interact with.

"The conference was a lot of work but really fun," Flores said. "Business is a lot of work but CCOC students have a great advantage as we learn in a business type atmosphere."

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 50,000 diverse students with the skills to help them be productive, income-earning and tax-paying contributors to Silicon Valley.