Stokes County recently witnessed a first among some of its high school students.
A group of the students just completed an internship with the Stokes County Schools partnership of Workforce Innovation to Support Early Education and Stokes Partnership for Children, utilizing the program’s paid work-based component.
”This is the only paid internship currently offered in the Stokes County Schools,” according to officials with Stokes Partnership. “To qualify, students who are enrolled in a high school internship and who are enrolled in the Workforce Innovation to Support Early Education program must have chosen to complete their internship in a high-quality early childhood education classroom.”
The workforce program came to fruition in 2015 from a collaboration between Stokes Partnership for Children, Forsyth Tech and the North Carolina Community College System. Its goals and objectives were to increase the workforce of higher-educated early childhood professionals through the use of college credits.
”In combination with Smart Start funding, a recent grant from the NC GlaxoSmithKline Foundation allowed for an expansion of the program to be able to serve more students, particularly students enrolled in an internship program. Students are also eligible to participate if they are enrolled in at least one 3-credit hour early childhood college-level class,” the organization said of the effort.
The students successfully completing their internship and the program were Abba Thomas, a junior at West Stokes High School who completed her internship at Kidz Community Child Care Center in King; and Paiton Surratt, a senior at South Stokes High School who completed her internship at King Elementary School in the NC Pre-K program. Each student received $1,000 plus any expenses incurred during the internship, such as travel.
The Workforce agency provided financial incentives, enhanced professional development, and support for students with the goal to increase the workforce of higher-educated early childhood professionals. The program “Helps to decrease barriers and create a more seamless pathway for students interested in the early childhood field, especially from high school to college, and on into the workforce,” the agency said.
“In Stokes County, as well as in North Carolina as a whole, there are not enough qualified early childhood professionals to meet the demands of the workforce,” said Cindy Tuttle, executive director of Stokes Parntership for Children. “Expanding the Workforce Innovation to Support Early Education program to be able to serve more high school and early college students is a perfectly aligned strategy to encourage more students to pursue this educational and career path. The really cool thing about the Workforce Innovation to Support Early Education program is that students can earn between $20 to $30 an hour. If students are required to complete an internship for graduation, the Workforce Innovation to Support Early Education program will count those hours toward meeting program requirements. This equates to paid work-based learning.”
If interested, students may apply by going to www.stokespfc.com to fill out an online application or by contacting Lisa Dillon at Stokes Partnership for Children at [email protected] or by calling 336-985-2676, ext. 166. Internships are coordinated by Sonya Lankford, career development coordinator with the Stokes County Schools. She can be reached at [email protected] or by calling 336-407-4561.
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