Tech School Teacher Wins $50,000 Prize

An educator with more than 20 years of experience at Bucks County Technical High School in Bristol Township was awarded a $50,000 prize last week.

Power equipment technology teacher Jeff Cesari was awarded the prize before his students last week by Harbor Freight Tools representative Lauren Gomez as part of the company’s Tools for Schools initiative.

The company said $35,000 of the prize will go toward Bucks County Technical High School’s skilled trades program and Cesari will personally receive $15,000. In addition, the school was presented with a Harbor Freight tool chest with Cesari’s name engraved on it.

“The creativity and hands-on projects that Mr. Cesari and the other winning teachers bring to their classrooms is an inspiration,” said Danny Corwin, executive director of Harbor Freight Tools for Schools. “This is education at its best, and we are humbled to honor these teachers and shine a light on excellence in skilled trades education.”

Cesari was one of 15 second-place finishers in the nationwide contest.

Cesari’s classes cover a variety of equipment technology that ranges from power equipment to compact diesel engines to marine technology. The program has a 100 percent job placement rate and students are often recruited to post-secondary technical schools.

“Over the past fifteen years, the challenge to see the long view through your students’ eyes is the mark of a master teacher,” Cesari wrote in his contest application.

The educator said he was thrilled to receive the prize and thanked the company.

When asked by reporters what he planned to do with the $15,000 in prize money he will receive, he said he is considering a vacation and will first take his wife out to dinner.