Lakewood High teacher wins national award

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A Lakewood High School teacher and his students are celebrating some good news: they are being nationally recognized for their hard work.

At Lakewood High, the class looks like it could be any hi-tech company in Silicon Valley, with lots of computer programmers busy creating. But its not, these are high school students learning and doing computer programming.

"It's really a great class. We always have fun. We always like improving upon ourselves," said student Kyla Cole.

Lou Zulli is their teacher. Mr. Zulli is pretty famous in this world: he has inspired many students interested in computer programming.

"I've had students that have gone through my programs that are now working for Microsoft, that are working for NASA, that are working for NSA, that are working for Jabil Circuits," he said.

And now Zulli is being recognized on a national level. He and his students just won first place in a competition sponsored by Microsoft. Zulli is one of only 11 educators selected from thousands of of applicants across the country.

"I won because of the exceptional work of my students. I won because we produced something that is innovative unique among high schools," Zulli said.

Their winning project makes communication in Lakewood High between teachers, students and administrators a lot easier.

"It's used by everybody on the campus, whether it be students and or teachers or administrators. And it's all developed by the students," Zulli said.

And those students will all venture out into the real world, well prepared, thanks to all they learned at Lakewood High School.