Workshop Completion Ceremony – October 2025 – Opening Remarks by Danny Huffman

Danny Huffman – Opening Remarks 🎓

Thank you all for coming and showing support. Tonight will be fairly quick because I’m getting hungry, and the quicker we finish, the quicker we get to eat. 🍽️ Again, thank you all for coming.

A little bit about what we do, in case you don’t know. Second Chance University – HVAC Technical Academy has been around for quite a few years. We help develop solid HVAC candidates through hard work, dedication, commitment, and working very diligently. There’s a lot of hands-on training. 🛠️

I’m sure the participants have explained at least a few things about what we do. And up there on the screen, as they’ll attest, I take a lot of photos because it’s fun and empowering for everyone to see what they’ve physically accomplished. 📸

HVAC Technical Academy and Second Chance University believe in a simple philosophy: everyone deserves success. But success isn’t cheap, and that’s something I’ve expressed to every one of them. Success comes with choices. Sometimes those choices are hard. And when you make those choices, you have to understand that there are conditions—working hard, staying dedicated, showing commitment. Every one of these individuals did that. I’m very proud of them for succeeding and for being here. 💪

We’ll find out in a week or so how they did on the EPA exam, and I’m hopeful that everyone did extremely well.

We do a lot of work here. One example is this: a capacitor. A simple capacitor. Everyone here knows what that is. But as I explained on day one, we don’t just give them a capacitor. Our instructors—Andrew and Robert—don’t just hand it out. They must learn the contents, learn everything about it before they can receive it. We want to make sure they develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do their job and do it very well. Individuals who complete this program understand that they’ve earned it. It’s not given. It’s a developmental phase.

Andrew, Robert, and our other instructors treat them like employees, and I think that’s important for everyone to understand.

We also focus on developing life skills—the psychological aspect of being an HVAC technician. It’s a change of life, a lifestyle adjustment, and we covered that clearly throughout the program.

One of the individuals you’ll meet in a moment is Andrew. He is one of the instructors and the license holder for Tropical Air. Tropical Air of Central Florida operates under this same roof.

The things we do at Tropical Air are the same things we teach here. We walk in, introduce ourselves to Mrs. Smith. You remember Mrs. Smith?

Oddly enough, about two hours ago I received a phone call from a young business owner asking for a reference about one of our former students. We talked about what she was looking for—respect, professionalism, the way we treat Mrs. Smith. I explained everything, and she will be hiring Stephanie, who was here a couple of terms ago. There is success. There is opportunity. 🌟

With that said, I’m so glad you’re here. I’d like to introduce Andrew. Andrew, come on up.