SUMMER REPLAY | 2021 Certiport CERTIFIED Educator of the Year with Abner Soto-Henry
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
Release Date: 08/07/2024
Gamification in the classroom with Merrell Stewart
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
If you’re looking for a fun and engaging way to teach your curriculum, gamification may be the answer. Merrell Stewart has been using gamification with his students for years and is sharing his advice with you. Merrell is an 11-year veteran educator of animation, computer science, and game design in Houston, Texas. He has served more than a thousand students, specializing in the fundamentals of digital animation. His students learn composition, 2D and 3D animation, programming, game design, effective project management, and business creation. Merrell has a master’s in education...
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Preparing students for careers in the healthcare industry with Priya Mukundan
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
The health sciences sector employs approximately in the U.S. alone and is expected to grow by 13% from 2022 to 2032. But what skills do students need? What roles can they pursue? We sat down with Priya Mukundan to talk all about healthcare careers. Priya is an innovative and strategic healthcare leader with over 15 years of experience in post-acute care and clinical operations. She currently serves as the Post Acute Care Network Administrator at Navvis/Allina Health in Minneapolis, Minnesota, working with hospitals and skilled nursing facilities to optimize care transitions, reduce...
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Teaching soil and plant science with Jacob Falwell
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
The Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Career ClusterTM is critical for addressing global necessities, such as food security and sustainability. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are about. So many opportunities for your students to succeed. Are you looking to prepare students for careers in agriscience? Jacob Falwell joins us in this episode to discuss all things soil and plant science. Dr. Jacob Falwell holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture science and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in agriculture education. He’s been teaching all things...
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Meet the 2025 CERTIFIED Educator of the Year: Kim Kayser
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
Each year, we are so excited to recognize one of our customers as our CERTIFIED Educator of the Year during our annual CERTIFIED Educator Conference. We work with so many incredible educators, all of whom deserve recognition for their dedication and efforts. We're pleased to announce that Kim Kayser is our 2025 CERTIFIED Educator of the Year! Kim has been teaching as well as learning technology with her students for fourteen years in Santa Rosa County, Florida. For the last ten of those years, she’s been a career and technical educator, helping Woodlawn Beach Middle School students...
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Becoming a Spreadsheet Champion with Carmina Solares
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
What does it take to compete in the MOS World Championship? Now you can find out. Our team was privileged to work with the Australian production company, , on their new documentary, Spreadsheet Champions. During filming, they followed six students on their journey to becoming Microsoft Office Specialist Excel Champions. The documentary has now premiered at the SXSW and Hot Docs Film Festivals, and we could hardly wait to chat with one of the documentary’s stars, Carmina Solares. Carmina is a bubbly 17-year-old from Guatemala who finds comfort in math. During this episode, Carmina tells us...
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Starting a business at your school with Danya Peters
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
Ready to get a peek into CERTIFIED 2025? We’re continuing our series of CERTIFIED Educator Conference breakout session previews, and this is for all our business and entrepreneurship educators. Are you looking for ways to teach your students business skills that they’ll take with them after graduating? There’s no better place to learn real-world business skills than in an actual business. So why not start one at your school? Danya Peters did just that. Danya is a passionate business and marketing teacher, DECA Advisor, and mentor to two school-based enterprises. With degrees...
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Teaching learners about upskilling and achieving their career goals with Jessica Lindl
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
The days of linear career paths are over. People are switching jobs more often, making their career journeys more complex than ever. In fact, the found that people only stay in their jobs for an average of four years. That much change and complexity can be intimidating for students and professionals to navigate. How, as an educator, do you get your students ready to enter their own careers, when it may feel like a quest without a map? Enter: Jessica Lindl. Jessica Lindl is the author of and VP of Ecosystem Growth at Unity Technologies. She has over 20 years of experience running...
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AI for teachers: No robot required with Amy Waters
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
We’ve finalized our CERTIFIED Educator Conference breakout and workshop sessions, and we can hardly wait to learn with all of you. In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing teaser episodes with some of our breakout presenters. In this episode, we’re learning from Amy Water, an AI aficionado. Amy Waters is a 36-year veteran teacher at Hahnville High School in Boutte, Louisiana, with no plans of retiring any time soon. She is a complete nerd who has taught everything from Latin to computer programming and still loves learning new things and sharing that knowledge with everyone. She...
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Becoming a Spreadsheet Champion with Mason Braithwaite
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
What does it take to compete in the MOS World Championship? Now you can find out. Our team was privileged to work with the Australian production company, , on their new documentary, Spreadsheet Champions. During filming, they followed six students on their journey to becoming Microsoft Office Specialist Excel Champions. The documentary premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, and we could hardly wait to chat with one of the documentary’s stars, Mason Braithwaite. Mason is a quirky and endearing American teen whose love for spreadsheets is matched only by his fascination with ham...
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Women in the digital age with Ashley Masters and Ashlyn Dumaw
Certified: Certiport Educator Podcast
It’s 2025 and we’re ready to close the technology skills gap and support women in tech! According to a report from the (US) , women comprise only 35% of STEM professionals. In this episode, we chat with two amazing women in technology: Ashlyn Dumaw and Ashley Masters. Ashlyn is a senior at Cornell University studying chemical engineering with a concentration in fiber science. She’s passionate about the intersection of STEM and design, or the combination of technicality and creativity. Following her graduation in May, she will be working as a Management Consultant with Qral...
info_outlineWelcome to our Summer Replay series. We wanted to revisit some of our previous episodes. These episodes were previously recorded and aired at an earlier date. This episode originally aired on July 7, 2021.
In this episode, we had the privilege of interviewing our 2021 Certiport CERTIFIED Educator of the Year Abner Soto-Henry. His love for education and his students is truly inspiring. He talks about his story and journey to becoming an educator. We also chat about some of the challenges with his unique teaching and his advice to help other educators in similar situations as him.
Abner Soto-Henry has taught information technology education for nearly 20 years at the Latin American Youth Center Career Academy, specializing in Microsoft certifications, IC3 Digital Literacy certifications, and CompTIA certifications. In total, Mr. Soto-Henry has more than 24 years of experience in education.
Originally from Costa Rica, Abner speaks fluent Spanish, English, and Portuguese, enabling him to connect with the students he serves. He has received several awards, including the 2013 Community Star Award from D.C. United, the 2015 Hispanic Heritage Innovative Educator Award, the 2016 D.C. OSSE Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year award, the 2019 D.C. PCSB TIERific Teacher of the Year, and 2021 Certiport CERTIFIED Educator of the Year. A former professional soccer player, his passion for teaching is only rivaled by his love of the game.
Contact Abner:
https://www.facebook.com/ctlc.laycca
https://www.facebook.com/layccagreatness
https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-sotohenry20/
More information about Certiport:
Get all the details about Certiport here: https://certiport.pearsonvue.com/
Find out more about our CERTIFIED Educator Conference here: https://certified.certiport.com/.
Ready to connect? Join CERTIFIED: Certiport’s Educator Community here: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8958289/.