Grayson
RECC
Teaching Students About Work
July 1997When
the president and CEO of Grayson Rural Electric Cooperative in
northeastern Kentucky got a call from the local high school asking
if a student could do some part-time work at the co-op, Carol Hall
Fraley immediately said yes.
"I'd been
through this myself and I thought it was great," says Fraley,
who manages the consumer-owned utility that serves more than 13,000
homes and businesses in the six counties around its headquarters in
Grayson.
That phone call
about a program to place students in local businesses came three
years ago. But Fraley designed a program like that for herself
nearly 25 years ago when she worked for Grayson Electric Co-op as a
high school student. She's been working for rural electric
cooperatives ever since.
Today's program
is more formal and structured than what Fraley did in the 1970s,
but it still achieves the objective of giving students some early
experience working in the world of business.
The phone call
about the part-time student work was placed by Ramona Burchett, a
business teacher at East Carter High School in Grayson.
Burchett started the local version of the cooperative education
project, which is accredited under the state's School-to-Work
program.
For each of the
past three years, Burchett has screened applicants down to about 15
seniors, given basic business classes like typing and accounting,
then matched these seniors with jobs related to the students' career
goals. They work three hours a day and are regularly
evaluated, and get high school credit.
"Businesses
have been very pleased with the student workers," says Burchett.
"It took awhile for them to understand what the program was
about, but now some of them are calling me asking for
students."
Andrea McCleese
started working at Grayson Electric Co-op in September 1995 under
the program. She's been there ever since working summers and
part time during the school year, when she attends Ashland Community
College majoring in business management.
"It's a good
start on a business career," says McCleese of her work in the
billing department. "It's a great way to get a foot in
the door."
Fraley agrees and
says the co-op benefits as well from working with the
students. "They're a little fresh air for us," she
says. "They're an inspiration and they keep us
young."
- Paul Wesslund
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