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Video: Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Accepting Applications for Teaching Excellence Prize

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Applications are open for the 2022 Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence, which will award cash prizes totaling $1.25 million to 20 of the best U.S. public high school skilled trades teachers and their programs.

Teachers can apply through May 20, 2022 at hftforschoolsprize.org.

(Staci Sievert, a WCA accredited skill evaluate and technical education teacher at Seymour High School in Seymour, WI, was one of 18 winners in HTFS’ 2021 program.)

The mission of Harbor Freight Tools for Schools is to increase understanding, support and investment in skilled trades education in U.S. public high schools. The prize is its flagship program.

“The United States is currently facing down an urgent nationwide shortage of skilled trades workers. Public high school skilled trades teachers and their students will be a critical part of the solution to this urgent problem. The prize honors and rewards these outstanding teachers and their programs,” said Danny Corwin, executive director of Harbor Freight Tools for Schools. “In the six years since the prize was created, we have honored 88 prize-winning teachers from around the country. We continue to collaborate with them throughout the year to help advance this critical field of education.”

The best skilled trades programs embody what great hands-on teaching and learning should look like in any classroom. Excellent skilled trades teachers use project-based learning, teach skills like leadership and collaboration, and help students apply academics to the real world.

The Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence was started in 2017 by Harbor Freight Tools owner and founder Eric Smidt. The prize recognizes outstanding instruction in the skilled trades in U.S. public high schools and the valuable work of teachers who inspire students to learn a trade that prepares them for life after graduation.

“Our country is making a massive investment in infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and broadband. In order to make those investments, we must rapidly expand our ability to train the next generation of skilled trades workers,’’ Smidt said.

A recent independent evaluation of the prize found that it has a dramatic impact on the winning teachers and their programs. Most said that the prize contributed to enrollment increases in their classes, an increase in local businesses reaching out to them to collaborate and an increase in donations to their programs. They also said winning the prize helped them strengthen relationships with community colleges. Most significantly, winning teachers are seeking new leadership opportunities and now see themselves as advocates for excellent high school skilled trades education.

This year the number of grand prize winners jumps from three to five, increasing the overall number of prize winners from 18 to 20. The five grand prize winners will receive $100,000 each, with $30,000 going to the teacher and $70,000 going to their program. Fifteen additional prize winners will each win $50,000, with $15,000 going to the teacher and $35,000 going to their program.

Past winners of the prize are teachers who have led their students to rebuild homes destroyed by hurricanes, manufacture parts for major aerospace companies and run live automotive repair shops on their high school campuses.

About the Prize:

  • Harbor Freight Tools for Schools has received more than 3,300 applications for the prize since 2017.
  • The benefits of the prize have had an impact on more than 100,000 students in skilled trades programs nationwide.
  • $4.7 million in cash awards have been given to 88 winning teachers and their skilled trades programs.
  • Winning teachers are invited to an annual convening called Let’s Build It, a three-day event hosted by Harbor Freight Tools for Schools where teachers share best practices and pilot innovate ideas.
  • Teachers whose school, district and/or state policy prohibits receipt of the individual portion of prize earnings are eligible to apply on behalf of their school’s skilled trades program.
  • The application process and the prize are designed to give teachers access to ideas and practices through a network of likeminded exceptional educators and leaders.
Mark Lorge of Fox Valley Technical College with Staci Sievert of Seymour High School

Sievert Steps Up and Seymour’s Tech-Ed Program Takes Off

Congratulations Staci Sievert!

The Woodwork Career Alliance of North America congratulates Staci Sievert for being a winner of the 2021 Prize for Teacher Excellence Award presented by Harbor Freight Tools for Schools (HFTS).

Sievert, a technical education teacher at Seymour High School in Seymour, WI, was one of 18 winners in HTFS’ fifth annual program that honors instructors of U.S. public high school technical education programs. This year, HFTS awarded more than $1 million to the 18 outstanding skilled trades teachers and their programs.

Read how Sievert, a WCA accredited skill evaluator, transitioned from teaching social studies to teaching woodworking, metal machining, and welding with the invaluable assistance of Fox Valley Technical College.

Tom Mueller, principal of Seymour High School, presents Staci Sievert a ceremonial check for being a winner of the 2021 Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence. $35,000 of the $50,000 proceeds will support Seymour High’s technical education program. The remaining $15,000 goes to Sievert.

Four years ago, the technical education program at Seymour High School of Seymour, WI, was in turmoil. Unable to hire qualified full-time tech-ed instructors for several years running, the school had no recourse but to employ long-term substitutes to teach woodworking, metalworking, and welding.

Entering Fall 2017, the Seymour High tech-ed program was about to limp through another academic year relying on a temporary instructor. That’s when Staci Sievert, 22 years a social studies teacher, volunteered to make the leap from the classroom to the woodshop.

“I was in principal Tom Mueller’s office when he read an email from the guy he had just hired. ‘I’m going to do something else instead.’ That would have been the fourth year for us to have a long-term sub in the tech-ed position,” she says, adding “I’m from here and I didn’t like seeing the tech-ed program tanking. I knew they couldn’t hire tech-ed instructors but that they could hire a social studies teacher.”

Sievert decided right then and there that enough was enough. She told Mueller, “Shoot, do you think I could learn that? I would do that.” He came back to me later and said, ‘Are you serious because you haven’t failed us yet. I think you can.’”

Soon after that exchange, Sievert was not only offered the tech-ed position, she was asked to start her new teaching assignment right away. She pushed back. “I made it clear that I was willing to do this, but that I would need to take classes before I could teach a topic to an acceptable standard.”

Sievert elaborates. “I was totally up for the challenge and thought it would be interesting, but I was not a tech-ed person. I had never welded before. I had probably cut on a table saw like three times in my life. I once built a chicken coop using a miter saw. That was the extent of my wood manufacturing experience. Basically, zero.”

From Knowing Zero to Tech-Ed Hero
Sievert struck a deal with school administrators. She would continue teaching social studies in Fall 2017 while taking one-on-one woodworking lessons with Mark Lorge, department chair of Fox Valley Technical College’s wood manufacturing program. Fox Valley is an EDUcation member of the Woodwork Career Alliance (WCA).

“As a former social studies teacher, I was starting at ground level. If I was going to be successful learning new skills and furthering the Seymour High School tech-ed program, I needed training and I needed a mentor. My first move was to call Mark Lorge,” Sievert says. “He was willing to create a unique schedule and curriculum for me beyond his normal course load.”

Mark Lorge, lead woodworking instructor at Fox Valley Technical College,  and Staci Sievert pose with a glued-up arch for a cherry table she built under Lorge’s instruction.

“I was allowed to leave school a half-hour early on Tuesdays and Thursdays and bee-lined to the Fox Valley wood manufacturing center in Oshkosh (about 45 minutes away) for my two-hour sessions,” Sievert continues. “I was a huge time suck for Mark. He wasn’t paid any more for teaching me; I wasn’t even part of his regular class. He was willing to do that.”

Sievert began teaching her first two woodworking classes in the spring of 2018, as well as a dual-credit economics course. She also continued her woodworking education at Fox Valley Tech. “I didn’t start teaching classes until 10:30 a.m. because I was being trained by Mark from 7:30 to 9:30 every morning. Then, in the summer, I was full-time with Mark in June and July learning wood manufacturing. Mark taught me wood manufacturing techniques from proper milling procedures to using the shaper to make cabinet doors.”

Lorge’s generous support for Sievert and her program extended beyond the extensive training he provided. Sievert says she submitted a list of equipment needs for the woods program based on recommendations made by Lorge and fellow FVTC instructor Glenn Koerner that the school board approved to the tune of $50,000. After a new shaper was delivered, Lorge donated nearly half a day of his time to set it up.

“Mark has also shared his curriculum with me, some of which I have adapted to my programs,” Sievert says. “My students have gone on field trips to the Fox Valley Tech wood manufacturing center. He was also instrumental in encouraging me to join the Woodwork Career Alliance.”

Sievert was among the first to become an accredited skill evaluator through the WCA’s online ASE training program that debuted last fall. This past spring, she employed the WCA skill standards to train and evaluate 11 students toward earning their WCA Sawblade certificates.

“The WCA process was good for fine-tuning our curriculum and using the WCA as an industry resource is really helpful,” she says.

Sievert took on tech-ed instruction full-time in the fall of 2018. That’s also when she started taking welding at Fox Valley Tech followed later by metalworking classes.

Seymour High School woodworking students

Seymour High School students proudly display the WCA Sawblade Certificates they earned in Spring 2021.

Seymour’s Tech-Ed Program on the Rise
In addition to winning the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools’ 2021 Prize for Teaching Excellence, Sievert’s dedication to going the extra mile to learn new skill sets was recognized by the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce. She received the Excellence in Career and Technical Education Award during an April 29 virtual ceremony.

In nominating Sievert for the award, Laurie Asher, superintendent of Seymour Community School District, noted that the Seymour High tech-ed program has experienced a 52% enrollment increase in the past five years. “Staci has ‘saved’ our technical education program. She took a program that was struggling and made it one of the premier programs in our district.”

The Seymour High tech-ed program is destined to become even stronger. District voters approved a $6.5 million referendum on April 6 by a more than 2-1 margin. The funding will go toward expanding and updating the tech-ed department.

“We’re going to get metals out of the woodshop,” Sievert says with a laugh. “This is going to allow us to have designated spaces for the different types of manufacturing that we teach and each area will be able to expand,” she says.

No Regrets
Does Sievert miss teaching social studies?

“No, I don’t miss it. I did it a long, long time,” Sievert says. “What I like best about teaching tech-ed is the combination of teaching kids, doing projects, and the community connections that the students make with each other that are so necessary and fruitful. It’s very magical for me.”