Enrollment has skyrocketed as students gain job experience
Sophia Wilson said her internship with Caroline Paradise, Oglethorpe County School System’s speech pathologist, allows her to experience her possible future career.
“I get to help out with encouraging them to learn their speech goals,” said the senior at Oglethorpe County High School. “She (Paradise) works one-on-one with some kids, and then she’ll work with groups up to five. So when it’s the bigger groups, I get to help out.
“If there’s a kid struggling with a specific word, I’ll go one-on-one and help them.”
Wilson interns during second and third periods as part of the work-based learning program, which wasn’t possible until this school year.
The work-based learning program saw a 117% increase in enrollment, from 40 students last year to 87 students this year, after the high school expanded the work-based learning program from sixth and seventh periods to all periods.
Sara Hughes, the program’s coordinator, shifted her focus from grant writing to the work-based learning program after this uptick in enrollment.
Hughes said some students like the program because they can leave school, but it also offers them the chance to gain experience and earn money. Students are required to document their hours and earnings with the school, and employers evaluate and sign off on the documentation.
About 17% of students are in non-paid internships, the other 83% are in paid placements.
In August, students documented over 4,900 hours of work, and for students in paid placements, they earned a combined total of over $55,000.
Ean Sonnier, OCHS assistant principal and career technical and agricultural education director, said the program didn’t meet the needs of most students when it was limited to the last two periods of the day.
“When we had students come to us at the end of last year talking about how they really wish we offered it, we put feelers out for pre-registration,” Sonnier said. “Those numbers came back in droves, and when I tell you that it was one of those things where we actually didn’t accept everybody.”
Hughes said added periods give more opportunities for students, like Kaitlyn Watkins.
Watkins, a senior, interns with the OCPS school nurse and at the Oglethorpe Senior Center, and is a certified clinical medical assistant. Watkins joined the program to gain experience since she can’t work many places at age 17 and with little experience.
“She goes in the middle of the day. If we didn't offer those segments, she wouldn’t be able to do it,” Hughes said. “She would be stuck in other classes that were maybe not as useful to her. So she's a prime example of a benefit of offering it to more periods.”
Becky Soto, Board of Education chair, said the success of the program is what she calls “the Sara Hughes effect.”
“Everything that Sara is involved in just turns into a successful opportunity for our students,” Soto said. “Whatever she touches just becomes gold.”
Soto said the program also feeds into the school’s motto of excellence for every student every day.
“It's giving kids an opportunity to get out into the workforce, learn skills that either give them employability skills or give them experience out in the community,” Soto said. “And I think Sara sees the value in that, and she has a way and a work ethic to set a vision and then to exceed all expectations.”
Hughes said she has already seen the positive effect the program has on students.
“One student did tell me, in particular, that he is more committed to staying at school this year because he knows he’s involved in the program,” she said, “and he knows people are expecting him to be somewhere and counting on him.”