Education

Treasure Coast High School’s LPN students are recognizable by their professional uniforms — and their ability to pronounce the word sphygmomanometer [blood pressure monitor]. RUSTY DURHAM

Medical first

Post author:Deborah Maldonado
Post published:December 16, 2025
Post category:Education Health Port St. Lucie

This year’s homecoming at Treasure Coast High School in Port St. Lucie was especially significant: It was the 20th anniversary of the Titans. However, not everyone on campus noticed. Misha Fenelus is a junior at TCHS and a second-year student in the school’s inaugural licensed practical nurse [LPN] program — the first of its kind in Florida.

Morningside Academy uses a variety of academically challenging curricula for its Upper School, as well as offering dual enrollment through Palm Beach Atlantic University. MORNINGSIDE ACADEMY

Divine education

Post author:Deborah Maldonado
Post published:June 10, 2025
Post category:Education Port St. Lucie

Since 1987, Morningside Academy — Port St. Lucie’s oldest private school — has fulfilled the dual purpose of stimulating the intelligence of its students to achieve academic excellence and molding excellence of character through faith-based instruction.

Growing up in New York, Puerto Rico and England, it is no surprise that Dr. Herb Ricardo’s career includes travel around the world. HERB RICARDO PHOTOS

Well-traveled teacher

Post author:Deborah Maldonado
Post published:August 22, 2024
Post category:Education Port St. Lucie Port St. Lucie People

Herb Ricardo’s education hit a wall when he was 13. According to his teachers, he’d never use his brain for academics.

Christopher Sweeney teaches art to K-5th graders at Beachland Elementary School with a flair for the whimsical that keeps his students engaged. RUSTY DURHAM PHOTOS

The Art Teacher

Post author:Deborah Maldonado
Post published:February 29, 2024
Post category:Education

Peter Pan has nothing on Christopher Sweeney, an art teacher at Beachland Elementary School in Vero Beach.

As a fifth-grade gifted teacher, Joshua Perry enjoys tapping into his students’ creativity by providing a flexible curriculum that focuses on academics and life lessons, while encouraging the performing arts.RUSTY DURHAM

The Gifted Teacher

Post author:Deborah Maldonado
Post published:February 29, 2024
Post category:Education

Teaching runs in Joshua Perry’s DNA. And fortunately for his students, Martin County’s newest teacher of the year decided to follow in his family’s footsteps.

The Promise Program at Indian River State College gives local high school graduates the opportunity to earn an associate degree — tuition free. James Crocco © Indian River State College PHOTOS

CLASS ACT

Post author:Deborah Maldonado
Post published:February 29, 2024
Post category:Education

For years, Indian River State College has been a beacon of higher learning providing quality, affordable education to students.

DATEBOOK – Fall 2023

Post author:Deborah Maldonado
Post published:September 28, 2023
Post category:Education

Upcoming events- Sept. 28 – Nov. 16

A group of middle school students is engaged in playing Lagoonology, a game about the Indian River Lagoon that comes with a room-sized gameboard. JOHN BUCK PHOTOS

GAME CHANGER

Post author:Deborah Maldonado
Post published:September 28, 2023
Post category:Education

John Buck entertains, teaches and engages classrooms of middle school students for an hour with nary a screen in sight. How is the miracle achieved? The feat is due to Lagoonology, the interactive, room-size board game he invented.

Students and their teacher Zoey Bridges created these three samples of coiled pottery at the recently opened Treasure Coast Pottery. TREASURE COAST POTTERY PHOTOS

Firing a new artistic future

Post author:Deborah Maldonado
Post published:September 4, 2023
Post category:Arts of the Treasure Coast Education Port St. Lucie

This new artistic space on Heritage Drive is filled with the fun, the excitement and the amazement that comes with learning to create something that never existed before and knowing you made it.

This rendering portrays the coming state-of-the-art Indiantown Charter High School which offers students a traditional high school education with a focus on career training and college-level learning. HARVARD JOLLY ARCHITECTURE PHOTOS

Charting the future

Post author:Deborah Maldonado
Post published:March 5, 2023
Post category:Education

As you drive west along Southwest Citrus Boulevard approaching Timer Powers Park in Indiantown, a massive structure rises in the middle of vast agricultural fields. The building — Indiantown Charter High School — will be the new home of the town’s first high school. It is a symbol of hope, promising educational opportunities and a brighter economic future for local residents.