Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, May 2, 2024:
California's Patterson High School is the home base of Dave Dein and his well-known, in some ways pioneering, CDL truck driving instruction program for high school students.
Dein was recently honored as Teacher of the Year by the California chapter of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) for his work teaching and promoting the trucking profession to Patterson students.
Dein's influence extends beyond just his local area, too. Since the 2017 start of the high-school trucking program as what might be the first such non-vocational-school program in the country, Dein developed model curricula being adopted and replicated elsewhere around the country.
Dein's work with students sometimes extends beyond the classroom into the cultural touchstones around the wider trucking world. Here Dein (left) is shown in 2021 with then-current and other former students honoring Dein's father, Philip Dein, and other veterans at San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery during that year's Wreaths Across America event.
Dein went on to advance in ACTE's Western region in the Teacher of the Year competition, and now will be one of five teachers competing for the national Teacher of the Year title. The program concludes in early December at the ACTE Vision Conference in San Antonio, Texas.
“Being chosen as the 2025 California ACTE Teacher of the Year was such an honor,” said Dein. “As I was presented with the award at this year’s Educating for Careers Conference in Sacramento, it became extremely evident that it was covered with the fingerprints of those who greatly impacted me and allowed me to stand here on this stage. I share this award with all those who have made a lasting imprint on my life.”
