Richland High Teacher Recognized For Growing Program

Richland High Teacher Recognized For Growing Program

A teacher who has grown Richland High School’s business & marketing program and made it one of the largest in southeast Washington since becoming a teacher just under two years ago is being lauded by his fellow educators.

Adrian Ochoa was recently named the 2021 New Teacher of the Year by the Washington Association of Marketing Educators (WAME). The award is for outstanding educators who are in the first three years of the careers.

Principal Tim Praino says Mr. Ochoa’s positive and supportive attitude combined with an understanding of what students need to be interested and successful in business and marketing are keys to the work he’s already done.

“He is a kid magnet with a can-do attitude,” says Principal Tim Praino. “He added the new Sports & Entertainment Marketing class because that is what our students are wanting to learn about and potentially pursue careers in.”

Mr. Ochoa joined the district more than 10 years ago and became the business and marketing teacher at Richland High in the 2019-20 school year. He has extensive marketing experience operating his own sports-centered ventures for equipment, apparel and more.

Business and marketing is a Career & Technical Education (CTE) discipline and, along with classroom instruction, many students participate student leadership roles at school and participate in state-level competition and learning opportunities through DECA.

Richland High’s DECA program had 26 students qualify for state-level competition at the recent regional competition, and RHS sophomore Anika Halappanavar was voted president of Region 6 in the state DECA organization, which covers Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla and Klickitat counties.