By Kelly Miller, Director CLE Davie

As the Director of CLE-Fort Lauderdale, I am often asked, “What is a typical day for a CLE student?” For those that know anything about our students’ days, you know that this is not a simple answer. Our students are engaged in a variety of commitments and activities. And everyone is at CLE for a different purpose. The one thing I can say with certainty is that they work hard!

Some students are pursuing a 2 or 4 year college degree program, others a vocational certificate and others valuable work experience. On top of this, there are CLE appointments galore, daily responsibilities, fun social activities, and much more. With so much going on, it is important to recognize that each day brings successes – sometimes small successes, stepping stones to larger ones, and sometimes big successes, the ending of one chapter and the start of another.

Worth boasting about

Here at CLE we understand the importance of acknowledging and celebrating daily accomplishments. These are too numerous to list, and honestly, I do not think I could even begin to come up with an exhaustive list. But over the past few weeks, here are some noteworthy “smaller” successes of our students:

Learning an organization system for maintaining one’s apartment
Successfully making a new recipe
Hosting a dinner party
Passing a mid-term exam
Completing a final paper
Making a new friend
Going on the first independently planned social outing
Staying on budget after struggling to do so

But of course, we cannot forget those BIG achievements either!

Summer is in full swing here in Fort Lauderdale and graduation time is upon us. This is such an exciting time in our students’ lives and certainly not a celebration to miss. We also have students succeeding in big ways in internships and jobs, successfully navigating a work environment and learning essential skills along the way. Here are some of these “bigger” accomplishments of our students:

Victoria P – Graduated from Sheridan Technical College in Cosmetology
Gaby C – Graduated from the Art Institute with her degree in Graphic Design
Coral B – Completed all her academic requirements at Animal Behavior College and will be beginning an externship as a Veterinary Assistant
Jordan W – Passed her first 2 Early Childhood Teacher Certification Tests and has successfully been interning at Young at Art Museum for over a year
Grace K – Passed her first Early Childhood Teacher Certification Test
Jeremy P – Passed his Language Arts remediation test in order to gain acceptance into the McFatter Technical College’s Welding Program
Adena S – Passed all her remediation tests (language arts, reading, and math) while attending Sheridan technical College’s Early Childhood Program. She also secured a job at a summer camp for the summer
Brian L – Graduated from a year-long leadership training program through the Center for Independent Living Broward (CILB) and has successfully been interning at Poverello Food bank/Thrift Store and the Broward Library for over a year
Jeff H – Graduated from McFatter Technical College in Culinary
Evan C – Graduated from a year-long training leadership training program through CILB and has successfully been interning at the Museum of Discovery and Science, Mizell Johnson State Park, and The Grove Organic Garden. Evan also has been accepted into the IT program at the Dan Marino School
Pablo G – Has been interning at 3DMagine (3D Printing and Design) for a year, specializing in social media
Brent B – Has begun a summer internship at 3DMagine, honing his skills in computer programming and installation
Wilson C – Has been successfully interning at the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society since August as a genealogy researcher and an innkeeper
Daniel N – Has been employed at the International Management Company in the Events and Venue Staging department since February while attending Broward College