The Santa Maria Valley is full of young students ready to work, and thanks to the State Department of Education and Marian Medical Center’s Workability program, they get the chance to do so.
Marian Education is serving the community by providing job opportunities for high school students from Santa Maria High School and Pioneer Valley High School.
The program pays high school students with disabilities for 50 hours of training at Marian Medical Center and other local businesses. Currently, students are gaining experience in the food services, education, and childcare departments. Between both Santa Maria and Pioneer Valley schools, there are nine students participating in the Workability program.
The objective is to place students in local job training positions so they can get instruction and gain work experience for the future. The program also aims to get them hired as employees at the local jobs where they’ve been trained. The students complete their training through the state’s job training program.
The program runs throughout the academic school year, so the current session is soon coming to a close.
“When this year’s work training program comes to an end, I know that the students will be sad because they truly appreciate their jobs and really respect the organization they each are involved in,” said Gary Knuckles, Santa Maria High School’s work education coordinator.
Both high schools’ work education coordinators—Knuckles and Rob Mouw interact with and encourage the students by providing information for those interested in participating in the program. They both agree that their student’s communication skills and social maturity have grown a significant amount since they’ve become involved in the program.
Currently, seven of the nine students are working under the wing of Anthony Taylor, Marian Medical Center’s Food Services director. Taylor assigns jobs to the students based on their individual levels and helps them build up experience so they can complete more demanding tasks in the workforce.
“I believe this program creates community growth based on the fact that former students from this program and similar programs are now Marian employees working with me, serving the community,” Taylor said.
For more information or questions regarding Marian’s participation with the Workability Program, call Jessa Squellati at 739-3580 or e-mail jessa.squellati@CHW.edu.
Intern Gabby Hendriksen compiled this week’s Community Corner. Send comments or ideas to the Sun via e-mail at intern@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 12-19, 2009.