Three public high school skilled trades teachers—a precision manufacturing teacher from Arizona, a landscape operations teacher from Florida and a welding instructor from Missouri—are first-place winners of the 2019 Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence. They and their schools, along with 15 second-place winners and their schools, will receive more than $1 million in prizes.
The first-place winners are Cesar Gutierrez, a precision manufacturing teacher at Desert View High School in Tucson, Arizona; Wendy Schepman, a landscape operations teacher at South Fork High School in Stuart, Florida; and Brent Trankler, a welding teacher at Sikeston Career and Technology Center (SCTC) in Sikeston, Missouri. Gutierrez, Schepman and Trankler were each surprised in their classrooms today by representatives for Harbor Freight Tools for Schools with the news that they and their schools will receive $100,000—$70,000 for the high school skilled trades program and $30,000 to the teacher.
“Skilled trades educators are crucial to helping students stay engaged and motivated in high school,” said Danny Corwin, executive director of Harbor Freight Tools for Schools. “These amazing teachers connect students to promising careers, show them how to apply academics to the real world and help them feel pride and accomplishment—something they might not experience in all their classes. We make these awards because we believe in these teachers, we believe in these students, and we believe this vital sector deserves more support and investment.”
Each of the 15 second-place winners across the country were also surprised with the news that they and their schools will receive $50,000. In addition to the more than $1 million in first- and second-place prizes awarded by Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, the company Harbor Freight Tools donated $32,000 to 32 semifinalists.
The Prize for Teaching Excellence was started in 2017 by Harbor Freight Tools Founder Eric Smidt to recognize extraordinary public high school skilled trades teachers and programs with a proven track record of dedication and performance. Prizes are awarded by Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, a program of The Smidt Foundation.
“All of our roads and bridges, our schools and homes, and our planes and automobiles are built and are maintained by tradespeople,” Smidt said. “It is our dedicated skilled trades teachers, who inspire students to pursue these meaningful careers, that allow our economy to thrive and make so much of what we depend on possible. We are deeply honored to be able to shine a light on these extraordinary teachers today.”
The 2019 prize drew nearly 750 applications from 49 states and included three rounds of judging, each by a separate independent panel of experts from industry, education, trades, philanthropy and civic leadership. The field was narrowed this summer to 50 semifinalists. The application process, which included responses to questions and a series of online video learning modules, was designed to solicit each teacher’s experience, insights and creative ideas about their approach to teaching and success in helping their students achieve excellence in the skilled trades.
