Auburn School District’s automotive technology program was awarded the National Automotive Youth Educational Systems (AYES) School of Excellence Award during the 2011 National AYES Training Conference in Seattle on July 18-21.

The award recognizes the district’s automotive technology program for providing its students exceptional internship experiences with local dealerships and independent repair facilities. The automotive technology program received a $250 gift card to Snap-on Tools.

In addition, the instructor of the program, Fred Donaldson, received a $100 gift card to Cabela’s.

AYES is a partnership between the school program and local dealerships and independent repair facilities to provide students with an internship experience, while allowing industry partners the opportunity to “grow their own” technicians. Through an application process, employers select academically and technically talented students to work full-time summer internships, receiving one-on-one training with a line technician/mentor.

The program provides students an opportunity to apply their knowledge and skill to work in the real world. Many students who participate in the program are hired full-time after graduation.

Elsewhere

Communities In Schools of Auburn (CISA), a local affiliate of a national dropout prevention program, has achieved National Accreditation by demonstrating compliance with all Communities In Schools Total Quality System standards. “We are proud to have achieved our accreditation with Communities In Schools because we know this high set of standards will help us provide better services to our students,” said Arlene Pierini, executive director. Communities In Schools of Auburn is one of the first to receive its National Accreditation among the nearly 200 local affiliates that comprise the Communities In Schools network in 25 states and the District of Columbia. The standards define expectations for effective non-profit business practices and for implementing the Communities In Schools model of integrated student support services at school sites. …

Western Washington University student Chelsea Joell Brader, daughter of Lisa Brader of Edgewood, received a $1,000 Alumni Association Leader Scholarship for the 2011-2012 academic year. The Alumni Association Leader Scholarship is awarded to students who demonstrate achievements of or potential for successful leadership that aims to make the world a better place. Brader, a senior, holds a 3.9 GPA. She graduated from Auburn Riverside High School in 2008 and is majoring in psychology. She was named to Western’s president’s list for winter and spring semesters. She volunteers with Common Threads Farm and Shuksan Middle School as a sixth-grade math support tutor. …

Auburn’s Allison Frost (senior, science broad field, secondary education) made the spring dean’s list at Concordia University Wisconsin. … The Washington CPA Foundation, the benevolent arm of the Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants, awarded Pacific’s Tara Low an accounting scholarship for the 2011-2012 academic year. Low, an Auburn Riverside graduate, is attending Washington State University as an accounting major. She anticipates earning her bachelors in accounting in 2012. Low is a member of several on-campus organizations, including Beta Alpha Psi, the international accounting honors organization, and has participated in numerous on and off campus charities and activities. She is also an excellent student, placing on the president’s honor roll in each of her semesters at WSU and receiving many awards for academic excellence. Low plans to begin working in public accounting and hopes to become a certified fraud examiner in the future.