Special education students offered internships through Project SEARCH
Students will attend a nine month program, learn new skills and get help with writing resumes and applying for jobs.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — It was a big day for high school students with disabilities in Bibb County, as they signed commitment letters for a nine month internship program.
Westside High School students Rashaun Warren and Jonathan Stanley Jr. signed their letters of commitment to intern with Middle Georgia State University (MGA). The school offers students with disabilities internships on campus through a program called Project SEARCH.
The international program partners with schools to help students in special education find jobs with competitive pay and similar hours as their general ed. peers. During their internships, students learn skills such as teamwork, communication, and financial literacy.
Bibb County Project Search Instructor, Jennifer Sanders, explained how the program is designed to help students get hired.
“The whole premise behind Project SEARCH is to make sure that children with disabilities are afforded the same, that any of their typical peers are afforded,” Sanders said.
Students will begin their internships after they graduate high school. At MGA, students will be able to choose from working at Starbucks, Subway, catering, or in the cafeteria or library. They will rotate between three jobs over the course of ten weeks each.
Project SEARCH instructors also help their students apply for jobs and attend interviews so they can be hired before they graduate from the program.
“We are in the middle of applying for jobs, we build their resumes, we have cover letters,” said Sanders. “We send that out, we go with the kids to the interviews, get them employed or help them get themselves employed, and then we track them for two years after that to make sure they maintain employment.”
Jonathan Stanley Jr.’s mother, Lashonda Sanders, says she hopes the program can help build her son’s social and communication skills.
“He’s exiting from the teen world, now he’s going into the adult world where he can utilize everything that he has learned throughout the years of school,” his mother said. “It encouraged me to see that he gets a great opportunity to continue to build his skills that he has the ability to do.”
Students who have graduated from the program have been hired by businesses such as Wal-Mart, Kroger, Papa John’s, and Aladdin catering at MGA. With this year’s group, seven of the eight students have already found employment.
“The growth that we see in them from August to May is huge. The maturity level is, you just see a very big difference in that,” Sanders said. “They’re excited, they want to go to work.
Project SEARCH is available to all Bibb County high school students with disabilities. Sanders says she hopes more businesses will partner with the program, and that more students will attend.
