Two Frederick High School seniors have designed the new website for the Colorado Association for Career and Technical Education after this proposal was selected over professionals from across the state.
A team from the Innovation Center, students Owen Willis and Lukas Reck, submitted a proposal to the CACTE to revamp and recreate the website for the state professional association. Their proposal was selected over several others from professionals across the state.
The two worked for seven months alongside the Innovation Center’s Instructional Cybersecurity and Technology Manager Beth Cerrone to develop a new and improved website. The website was unveiled at the CACTE conference in July, and the new website went live on Monday.
“When CACTE decided it was time for a website redesign, we sent out (a Request for Proposals) to our members, deliberately asking them to share it far and wide, with alumni and current students alike,” CACTE Executive Director Debbie Nelson said.
Nelson said she believes students, who are products of Career and Technical Education programs, are the best equipped to redesign the organization’s website. She stated that the student team was open to CACTE’s needs and created a platform that is easy to manage by the CACTE team going forward.
“Lukas and Owen have spent hours not only on the website itself, but also preparing training documents and videos for me about how it all works,” she said.
Willis was glad for the real-world opportunity this experience provided him.
“I was able to practice and improve several skills that will help me significantly, not only in my last year of high school but also in the real world once I graduate, such as communication skills, meeting deadlines, as well as working as a team,” he said. “I also learned a lot about web design, most notably how important it is to focus on every detail to ensure that the user experience is the best possible.”
Reck echoed those feelings.
“The goal of CTE is to provide work-based learning, and this project has taught me about working with clients, design, teamwork and deadlines more than I could have ever expected,” Reck said. “Due to the website having significant value, it allowed me to completely immerse myself into working on it, and look at all projects in a more professional manner.”
The student-designed website can be found at www.cacte.org.
