A Look at Past FLATE Awardees—Where Are They Now?

FLATE Awards have served as a platform to acknowledge dedicated educators and distinguished industry leaders across Florida. The awards not only stand as a testament to the outstanding contributions of each of the awardees, but as a legacy to what they continue to do to make a significant impact on technician education and training. Starting this month, we will feature some of our past FLATE awardees and highlight the work they (continue) to do, to promote technology education and career awareness in support of manufacturing in Florida.

Adrienne Gould-Choquette was the recipient of the 2012 FLATE Post-Secondary Educator of the

Year Award. She was also the former program director, instructor and advocate of the Engineering Technology and Construction Management Technology program at the State College of Florida. (You can read about her and the Award in the December 2012 edition of the FLATE Focus). Choquette says the Award ‘was one of the most rewarding recognitions I could have received for my time and dedication.’ Then too, all the rewards that came with teaching were not enough to sate her true passion for practicing engineering. After five years of giving advice to students to become innovators/job creators in the community, Adrienne took that advice herself and applied what she preached into practice. In 2013 she passed her P.E. exam and got professionally certified. In 2014 she stepped out of academia and joined the corporate world, not as an employee, but as an employer.

Today, Adrienne is the president of her own company which she started in 2014. She is the President of Adicot, Inc.—a full service provider of mechanical engineering services based in Venice, FL. “I have dreams of growing my one person company into a bustling firm, and part of that firm would include community training and education” said Choquette.  For more information on Adrienne visit www.adicot.com, or email Adrienne at adriennegc.pe@gmail.com.

Peeking over to the industry side of the continuum, FLATE’s partnership with industry leaders and colleagues have been instrumental in bringing manufacturing into the classroom and/or promoting technician training of incumbent workers. Michael Ennis was one such individual who spearheaded many initiatives to facilitate industry-technical education partnerships. Ennis received the FLATE Distinguished Service Award in 2009 and continues to be an advocate for technician education and training. Ennis is a manufacturing engineer for Harris Corporation’s Government Community Systems, and currently supports Harris Facility Operations in the construction of a 464,000 sq. ft office space for its engineering and technical disciplines. He also teaches, Harris employees as well as the general student body, two engineering technology courses every semester at Eastern Florida State College.

Ennis has always maintained close ties with FLATE assisting and serving the Centers in many

capacities. In 2012, Ennis was part of the FLATE-led Iberian Partnership for Technician Excellence that supported the collaboration between FLATE and the Basque government training in renewable energies. He is a certified Manufacturing Skills Standards Council (MSSC) Instructor and a member of MSSC’s curriculum development team. Given his integral role and contribution to the Harris employee training program, Ennis also received the Industry Appreciation Award from Eastern Florida State College (formerly known as Brevard Community College), and teaches several classes to help Harris employees earn MSSC certification.

In 2013, Ennis received the HI-TEC Industry Recognition Award at the High Impact Technology Exchange conference. The Award recognizes key industry personnel for outstanding contributions to promote technology education and career awareness at a state and national level. In addition to these accolades, Ennis has been instrumental in coordinating and setting-up several tours for local high schools and community colleges to tour manufacturing facilities as part of National Manufacturing Day in Florida. He is also a current member of the Space-TEC National Visiting Committee and the FLATE National Visiting Committee, and most recently received special recognition for his service at the 2014 NVC meeting at Aeroturbine, Inc. in Miramar, FL.

Looking ahead, Ennis plans to continue supporting the A.S.E.T degree at EFSC, and push forward

with efforts to convince EFSC to support the Bachelor of Science degree in engineering technology. ‘It is the next logical step for our state college to support the wide array of manufacturing companies in the space coast of Florida’ said Ennis. For more information on Ennis, you can contact him directly at mennis@harris.com.

FLATE Awards are geared to recognize both secondary and postsecondary educators and industry leaders for their outstanding contributions to promote manufacturing in Florida. Since 2006, FLATE has recognized 16 secondary and postsecondary educators and eight industry leaders. For information on the awards and/or submit a nomination for the 2015 FLATE awards contact Dr. Marilyn Barger, executive director of FLATE at barger@fl-ate.org, or visit www.fl-ate.org.