Students in Westfield Washington Schools are looking beyond the classroom for critical educational experiences.
WWS Superintendent Paul Kaiser presented a state of the school district address during the Westfield Chamber of Commerce luncheon Sept. 19 at the Bridgewater Club. While Kaiser said the district is growing, it hasn’t lost sight of its focus — the students.
“The most important things are the kids and what they do,” Kaiser said. “They’re our future. I love talking to parents and hearing what kids are doing (after) graduation. It starts in the home, but we try to make them great and do wonderful things.”
During the event, four WHS seniors shared their experiences on how classwork and internships are helping them prepare for the future.
Avery Huggins is participating in the turf science pathway at WHS and is a member of Westfield High School FFA.
“You may ask what a city kid like me is doing with farm animals, and I’m here to tell you, absolutely nothing,” he said. “Studying turf science means you can start a landscaping business. You can maintain sports fields, or you can even be the leading expert in all things turf/grass and be asked to testify in a courtroom for a pro athlete who got hurt on the turf. Yes, that has happened.”
The program exposes students to — and prepares them for — careers in life science and biotechnology.
Formerly known as Future Farmers of America, the FFA has grown into the National FFA Organization. Huggins said the change reflects growing diversity and new opportunities in the industry of agriculture. The Westfield chapter sponsor is Chris Kaufman.
Through FFA, Huggins has made connections to ag industry professionals. Huggins will attend Cornell University next year to major in agricultural science and play football.
“While my path to the Ivy Leagues may have started with football, Westfield’s ag program has helped prepare me confidently for the number one turf science/ag program in the country,” he said.
Claire Comer is interning with Westfield Washington Schools’ mass media program under multimedia producers Shawn Davis and Bailey Ruble. Comer also works with WWS in-house media production team, Rocks Media House.
The internship has allowed Comer to gain social media experience by brainstorming ideas for promotions and social media posts; writing social media captions; writing scripts for promotional videos; designing graphics; and directing productions for Rocks Media House videos. The work has helped her learn about the importance of branding, social media impressions, organization and communication.
“The skills that I’ve acquired during my internship are ones that I plan to take with me past high school,” she said. “In college, I plan to study communications and marketing and I’m so thankful that I have real life experience in this field.”
Bryanna Rohn is doing an internship this year with Indiana K-9 Search and Recovery.
“It’s a volunteer group where a whole bunch of people who are passionate about helping families with loved ones who (are missing), we go out and look for them using dogs that we train for scent searches,” Rohn said. “This internship has really helped me with what I want to do in the future, which is to go into law enforcement. There are many different people who I can talk to and see basically what it’s about.”
Rohn has spent time during her internship learning how dogs are trained in tracking scents and the behaviors dogs exhibit when they hit on a scent. She will also participate in ride alongs with law enforcement.
“I get to see it from the very start, when they train a dog that has never done anything to certifying them,” she said. “It’s a really neat process. This internship is really along the line of what I want to do.”
Kylie Amos interns with Bondry Consulting, a municipal advising firm.
“Next year, I plan to study finance in college, so this internship has been perfect for me,” Amos said. “I started a little over a month ago and I’ve already learned important things about how to manage my time efficiently, professionalism in the workplace and how to communicate effectively.”
Through her internship, Amos is involved in a hands-on project on financial audits and budgets, skills she said are giving her a head start on what to expect in college.
Kaiser said the students are only a few examples of how Westfield Washington Schools is preparing kids for the future.
“I tell people that I’ve done this for 40 years and I’m still going to school,” he said. “I learn every day and I learn from great kids like this. The reason we do what we do is because of them. The best day for me is graduation. I don’t know all the kids — it’s almost impossible with that many kids — but having them walk across the stage on that last day, it’s so important. It’s that piece of paper, it’s that next thing we’re trying to prepare them for. These kids are prepared not only for the next day after high school but beyond. It takes an entire team and an entire community to do that.”
REAL-WORLD EDUCATION
Student experiences shared at the chamber of commerce luncheon are part of Westfield Washington Schools three-pronged — or shamrock-shaped — approach to life readiness, by focusing on academics, careers and wellness.
Students learn career skills to lay the foundation for a successful future. While career readiness is incorporated into the curriculum, the career exploration internship course allows students to work in a public or private sector workplace side-by-side with professionals while learning about the activities and skill sets that are necessary for a specific career and getting hands-on training in those skills.
Business educator Michelle Goudy is the internship coordinator for WWS.
“I have the world’s best job ever,” she said. “I get to work 1-on-1 with seniors to hear about what they want to do, what’s their passion and then I get to connect them to real world experiences.”
Learn more at wws.k12.in.us/academics/life-ready.