David Yocum wins 2024 FLATE Distinguished Manufacturing Secondary Educator-of-the-Year Award Winner

David Yocum has been a teacher for Anclote High School and AmSkills for the past 5 years. He created the Advanced Manufacturing program for Anclote High School in Pasco County, starting in 2020 with 35 students and growing to 155 students in 2023-2024. Before starting the program at Anclote High School, David worked for years in the manufacturing industry. He started his career as a mechanic at a flight school and then began working with a company that built military hardware for deployment, where he helped fabricate Humvee and helicopter simulators. He later worked at Aeronautical Systems Engineering, where he visited Afghanistan building military and commercial simulators for the U.S. military to provide training.  He is currently working for Clearwater Motor Coach building mobile stem training, medical, and luxury RV solutions and manufacturing custom buses nationwide.

 

Since David has continued to work in the industry while teaching, he was able to provide his students with additional opportunities.  He placed 15 students in on-the-job training over the last 4 years doing special events, working with other CTE programs in the school and with local businesses. He also hired two full-time students that still work at the facility learning the trade and moving up in the industry.

Driven to make a difference, David has also provided mobile manufacturing boot camps in Tampa Bay.  He built a space bus to promote stem education and share cutting edge technology in advanced manufacturing.  The bus has a complete multi crew training simulation system with laser cutters and 3D printers. It is taken to events in the Tampa Bay area, across Florida and beyond. At Synapse Summit Tampa, Space Bus was in the top five things to see in Tampa Bay.  It provides the ability to build any training center around the World. Click here for more information on SpaceBusTours.

David believes that manufacturing is important because it's how we build a great future.  He states that it's important to 'Find that spark inside others that needs to be seen.  Through education you're not guaranteed experience, but through experience you're guaranteed an education." 

For information on the FLATE Awards visit http://fl-ate.org/programs/flate-awards, or contact Ernie Friend, Executive Director of FLATE, at ernie.friend@flate.org.