Smart Horizons Career Online Education (SHCOE), based in Pensacola, FL, announces that it is launching the Fredric G. Levin Career Online High School, in a strategic alliance with prominent Pensacola attorney Fred Levin. The Fredric G. Levin Career Online High School will provide an affordable means for members of underserved communities in Northwest Florida and around the state of Florida to both complete their high school education and receive a career certificate.
SHCOE is a private online high school district that gives students returning to the education process an opportunity to earn an 18-credit high school diploma, as well as complete course work for a career certificate in childcare, office management, protection services, transportation services, or homeland security. SHCOE was recommended for district accreditation by AdvancED/SACS as the world‟s first online school district in November of 2010.
“We are actively seeking to partner with individuals, local workforce agencies, corporations, not-for-profit agencies, government agencies, and post-secondary institutions who share our vision of helping people better their lives,” said Dr. Howard Liebman, SHCOE CEO and Superintendent, “and we‟ve certainly found such an individual in Fred Levin. Mr. Levin has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to both furthering education and providing assistance to those in underserved communities especially in Northwest Florida. It is just a natural fit and we are very excited.”
Levin is recognized as one of the most successful trial attorneys in the country. He is a member the Inner Circle of Advocates, an organization limited to 100 members nationwide, and has been listed in every edition of the publication Best Lawyers in America. In 2010, Levin received the Al J. Cone Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Justice Association. This award is given to an attorney who has pledged his life to upholding consumer rights and fighting for justice.
Mr. Levin‟s powerful commitment to education was made evident when, in 1999, The College of Law at the University of Florida was re-named the Fredric G. Levin College of Law. Mr. Levin‟s financial support has helped make the Fredric G. Levin College of Law one of the best endowed and most comprehensive public law schools in the United States.
“I believe in being a champion,” Levin said, “a champion not only for the rights of the individual, but also a champion for the underserved in our community, and there‟s no better way to do that than by providing adults with an opportunity to better themselves through adult education and job training. I was impressed when I heard about Smart Horizons Career Online Education achieving their historic recommendation from AdvancED/SACS accreditation as the world‟s first online school district, and I‟m excited to collaborate with them in establishing the Fredric G. Levin Career Online High School.”
“This is a unique, alternative educational initiative that stands at the heart of my commitment to our local community and various underserved communities around the state of Florida and around the country. It is our social and civic responsibility to provide these communities with alternative education and job training opportunities” Levin said.
Ashton Hayward, who took office as Mayor of Pensacola in January, was instrumental in promoting this collaboration between Fred Levin and SHCOE. Hayward sees his local mission of job creation and educating adults for the workplace as aligning with the goals of another innovative newcomer on the Florida political scene—Governor Rick Scott. “One of Governor Scott‟s main goals is to make Florida „the job creation model for the nation,‟” Hayward said. “His „7-point plan‟ calls for generating 700,000 new jobs over the next seven years, and we are positioning ourselves to create many of these new jobs right here in Northwest Florida with strategic alliances like the one between Fred Levin and SHCOE.
Hayward further added that, “Fred Levin has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to helping underserved communities and promoting education, and Dr. Howard Liebman, with his past experience in developing the University of Miami Online High School, has created an adult high school diploma and job training model in SHCOE. I am committed to doing whatever it takes to create jobs and this concept of combining adult high school education with job training just makes sense to me and I fully support moving it forward. Our next challenge is identifying funding channels for these adults.”
Smart Horizons Career Online Education, a private adult online school district recently recommended for AdvancED/SACS district accreditation, is a national leader in delivering affordable, career-based online education to students throughout the world. Founded in 2009 and located in Pensacola, Florida, Smart Horizons Career Online Education offers complete career-based online high school diplomas and career (credentialed) certificates in the fields of childcare and education, transportation services, homeland security, protection services, and office management. For more information, visit our Web site at www.shcoe.org, call our office at 800-261-6248 or email our office at hliebman@smarthorizonsonline.org