Good News About Polk County Public Schools

Polk County Public School seniors Zoe Lauters and Jared Smith were recently selected as the first place and third place winners respectively in the Florida 2011 Careers in Energy Week Essay Contest, sponsored by the Florida Energy Workforce Consortium (FEWC).

Both Lauters and Smith are students in the Tenoroc High Lakeland Electric Power Academy.  Academy instructor Gary Kiger, says he is very proud of all his students that submitted essays.

“To have two of our essays selected in the top three in the State of Florida is totally remarkable,” says Kiger.  “Zoe Lauters and Jared Smith are excellent students in the academy, and I’m very proud of each of them for their dedication to excellence. “

The Lakeland Electric Power Academy is in its fourth year of operation at Tenoroc High School, and Betsy K. Levingston, Lakeland Electric Director of Training & Workforce Development, says they too are very proud of Zoe and Jared.

“As co-chair of FEWC, it is especially rewarding for me to see our students participate and perform so well,” says Levingston. “They, through their winning essays, demonstrate a unique understanding and appreciation of energy workers' critical role in maintaining the quality of life we have come to expect and enjoy.”

The 2011 essay contest theme was “Energy Workers Make a World of Difference.”  Participants wrote an essay in 500-1000 words describing how energy workers make a world of difference.  Winning essays were selected by a panel of judges on the basis of organization, depth of detail, and use of language by the authors.  Each winner was awarded an Apple iPod in a special recognition presentation at their respective school.

(in picture, left to right:) Tenoroc H.S. principal, Ernest Joe, Jr.; General Manager of Lakeland Electric, Jim Stanfield; Jared Smith--3rd place; Lakeland Electric Director of Training & Workforce Development and FEWC Co-chair, Betsy Levingston; and Lakeland Electric Power Academy Instructor, Gary Kiger.

(Pictured left to right:) Tenoroc H.S. principal, Ernest Joe, Jr.; General Manager of Lakeland Electric, Jim Stanfield; Zoe Lauters--1st place; Lakeland Electric Director of Training & Workforce Development and FEWC Co-chair, Betsy Levingston; and Lakeland Electric Power Academy Instructor, Gary Kiger.

Winning Essay by: Zoe Lauters

Imagine a world without electricity. Getting ready for work in the morning unable to brew a cup of coffee, or turn on a modern heating unit in the frigid winter. But do you ever stop to think of how these daily commodities are made so readily available? Without the work of people such as lineworkers, engineers, and technicians, we would be forced to reside in a world much more trivial than we live in today. Energy workers are the reason that we are able to maintain our societies strive for technological advances.

When our everyday lives are broken down, the number of times we come in contact with something that requires electricity is countless. Electricity is not only used when you turn on the lights, but also to run vital machines in hospitals as well as providing ways to make computers work so that records can be more easily organized. Electricity is the means for such industrial advances, and is the reason for life as we know it. Even with the discovery of electricity, without energy workers energy would not be able to function. It is imperative to realize that when we turn things on throughout the day, there is someone working behind the scenes; providing us with those luxuries. However, do you ever think about who provides the power for the ceiling fans we run at night, or the microwave we use to heat up our midnight snack? Not only do energy workers work all the day time hours of the week, but they are also required to maintain the luxuries we are so accustomed to during night time hours. Not to mention the time they take from their personal schedules on holidays, family events, and weekends.

Everyday energy workers do so much, allowing the world to function as it does, and with the continuous advancement in technological fields, the need for these electric virtuosos advances everyday into bigger and

better things. One big project that is being taken on by energy workers is the search for reliable renewable energy sources. This will provide longer availability of energy to the world. With these new strives, energy workers not only have to maintain the work that they already do to endow us with electricity, but also to help figure out the best ways to take electricity as we know it. This just adds to the amount of work that energy workers do to continue to improve our lives.

Now, take a look around at your surroundings. Consider all the things in your vicinity that require some kind of outside help just to make it possible to run. Is the light on? Is the room heated or cooled to your liking? Are you reading this online? All of these are expected commodities, things we grow up with. But not a single one is possible without energy. And you can’t pick energy off trees; it has to be converted, shaped to whatever converter necessary, and that isn’t possible without energy workers. At points, this electricity can be run by machines, but who regulates these machines? Who fixes them? Energy workers are the hidden heroes of the world, the people who make life as we know it possible. Unseen to the world in their factories, they repair turbines, they keep energy flowing, they fix problems that arise, all in a day’s work.

Furthermore, employment opportunities such as power plant helpers, technicians, Power line workers, they aren’t just jobs. They’re careers; trades that must be learnt to be accomplished. No average Joe could do these jobs; time and effort must be put in to get the results needed to power our society. For example, to be a turbine maintenance worker, it takes three semesters to learn the skills needed. Three semesters of turbine maintenance only, no other classes included. Being in the energy field takes dedication, commitment, and the drive to take the initiative and become one of the country’s most needed suppliers.

To conclude, energy workers aren’t just workers. They’re providers, endowing the world with the energy to supply. They’re the basis of daily life: without them, life as we know it would cease to exist. Power wouldn’t get transferred, equipment would break down and wouldn’t be repaired. While my essay is a long way off from the recognition they deserve, I end this with a humble thank you to every energy worker, every man and woman working on the power lines, in the factories, out in the field on turbines. Because of you; I am able to turn off and on the light in my room, able to charge my phone, able to do trivial things such as checking my facebook. Thank you.

Third Place Essay: Jared Smith

Now is the time to give credit where credit is due: The unnoted heroes of the time, the energy workers: Line workers; Engineers; Technicians; These men and women dedicate their lives to developing new technologies and maintaining the established ones. They keep our society running.

Think of the technology you use every day, or just the ones you use in the morning while you’re getting ready for work. The essential coffee maker, the toaster, the microwave, these simple machines are powered by electricity and electricity isn’t a magical power that just appears when you insert a plug unto a socket. Electricity is its own thing, harnessed by people. People who work on turbines and in substations, they allow you to make your morning joe.

Where does energy come from? Energy never dies, never disappears. The energy we use now was the energy transferred as the dinosaurs stomped on the ground, and now we use it to power the mechanical dinosaur at the museum. But energy isn’t harnessed like an apple can be picked off a tree; it takes adapters and converters and technology controlled by none other than these energy workers. These people put their whole lives into their work, they train and adapt and mold their whole lives around powering everyday life.

I myself can prove that these people power our lives; last year in November my classmates and I visited Lakeland Electric, the local power plant. I got to witness firsthand the energy they had to put in to get the energy we use in our everyday lives. For hours every day, some fix turbines, power lines, every type of

electrical apparatus you can imagine. Others regulate the energy, and control the mechanics of these machines, so that the energy gets harnessed and supplied properly. Some machines can be run by other machines, or run by programs (all of these things created by certified electrical engineers). But when it comes down to it the electrical workers were the nuts and bolts and brains of the whole power plant.

Furthermore, many people take all this electricity for granted. They don’t realize what a luxury it is to have a light in the morning and at night, to be able to turn on and off the computer, to do pretty much anything in 21st century life!

The simplest exemplification how much power affects our life are the Duracell commercials: not only does energy never stop, but how they portray the energy used is incomparable: from a child’s toy’s battery to the grandmother’s heart monitor, energy is used for almost anything and everything. Stop and think of how many times you’ve been to the hospital, or how many times you can name someone else being in the hospital: the care received, the treatments, they all were powered by energy, and that energy didn’t appear out if thin air; that energy was produced by the energy workers, behind the scenes in their factories.

These unseen providers encompass all that we know as hardworking, caring for these machines at all hours of the day, as energy is needed at all times of the day. They never back down from the challenge, they never give up they work days upon days, down to the bone, so that life doesn’t stop in its tracks. Truly, they deserve the highest of honors, and as such I commend them for the work they do, for the services they provide. My thanks and admiration goes out to all the men and women in this field, for supplying us with what can be called a 21st century necessity.