School to work program comes to VWC
by Christina Webb

Virginia Wesleyan College is now an active member of the Norfolk Public Schools School to Work Accessibility Training Team. This is a program for students with disabilities ages 16 and up. It provides an opportunity for career exploration and training, and prepares students to enter the work-force.

VWC joined hands with Lake Taylor High School in an effort to provide job training skills to needy high school students. Since this is a vocational training project, the students are not paid. When on the job, the students work with a VWC employee.

“This gives them work experience for when they leave high school,” said Paulette McKinna, the supervisor and job coach from Norfolk Public Schools. “The students are doing quite well.”

The six students are here from 9-11a.m. weekdays except for the third Thursday of each month. Loretta Johnson works in the mail room, supervised by David Vickans. Nicole Smith, Roslyn Perry and Sherita Wilson work in housekeeping. Ellen Powers holds a support position with VWC physical plant employee Alan Brown. Andrea Jernigan has a desk job in the physical plant with Gale Carter and Ginny Videll.

“It helps you a lot,”said Jernigan.

Carolyn Cage originally consulted with VWC and set up the foundation for the job training program; she is the transition specialist with Norfolk Public Schools. Barbara Fried, director of human resources at VWC, and Diane Hotaling, director of community service at VWC, worked with David Vickans in the mail room and Bruce Vaughan, director of the physical plant, to arrange the job positions of the high school students. Carole Yates worked with Norfolk Public Schools to coordinate the site, and teacher Kim Dickens played a major role in picking the students she thought would work best in this environment.

This training program started at VWC the beginning of second semester, and will last throughout this semester. The students will graduate from high school this spring.

VWC is hoping to sponsor other programs such as this one in the future.