NICEVILLE - Brad Barker reached into his khaki pants and glanced at his vibrating cell phone.
"It's a business call," the Niceville High School senior said, smiling.
A few years ago, the burgeoning Web designer was "making horrible grades." Now he's graduating next week with As and Bs and through word-of-mouth has secured nearly 30 local and out-of-state Web clients.
The young entrepreneur makes enough money to fund annual surfing trips to Costa Rica.
Without Niceville's CHOICE (Community High: Okaloosa Institutes for Community Education) program, Barker's not sure what he'd be doing.
"I jumped right into it and got interested. After that it was all up hill," he said.
Success stories like Barker's have earned Okaloosa's CHOICE program extensive state and now national recognition.
James Stanger, vice president of certification and development for Prosoft, presented Niceville's CHOICE Institute with the Certified Internet Webmaster Step Up Award for being the premier high school in CIW certification in the country.
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"It's exciting to see people come out of high schools with real trade skills," Stanger said.
Teacher April Branscome was credited for implementing Niceville's CHOICE information technology advanced program.
"I'm only the facilitator. They take it and run with it," Branscome said.
State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and Monesia Brown, Florida's director for workforce renovation, were on hand for the celebration.
Only five months into her job after being appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist, Brown is already impressed with CHOICE's ability to merge secondary education and workforce training.
"There's a large percentage of kids who don't go to college," Brown said. Programs like CHOICE "get them excited about school."
Brown plans to work closely with Gaetz to replicate Okaloosa's program throughout the state.
As Barker prepares to attend Okaloosa-Walton College, he is optimistic about the future.
"It changes your attitude when you know you can be successful," he said.
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