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Welcome to our new series, The School Dispatch! This column will spotlight different students from across the commonwealth, each edition giving someone the opportunity to share the good, bad, and the ugly of what’s going on in their school or district. From unique events, to new trends, to causes of complaint, this series will show readers what Kentucky’s schools look like from a student’s lens.
By Riess Starks, Ballard High School
At Ballard High School, seniors can join the Cooperative Education program, or co-op, through the Business Services Academy. This allows them to sign out of school after a certain amount of class periods and go work a real-world job to earn a salary. Through the program, they are required to report a certain amount of hours to get credit and will receive a grade for the class according to the amount of hours completed.
To learn more about this opportunity, I talked with Seniors Delilah Calderon and Ella Miller, who both co-op.
“It's a way to gain professional experience while you're still in high school,” Delilah explained. She, like many others, chose a field to co-op in that aligns with her future career, nursing. “I'm going to go to nursing school after high school, so I got an internship at NorthernWomen and Children's Hospital to be a patient care assistant in the oncology unit. So that's really good to show colleges that I am already in the field and I'm kind of getting a taste of what I want to do and if I still want to do it.”
Through the program, students can learn more about their future profession than they ever could in a classroom. This real-world experience teaches them responsibility, navigation obligations, time management, and is especially good for building their resumes. Additionally, students can explore their interests to see what is the best fit for them in the workforce. For example, Ella found a new career path through the program.
“I work at a physical therapy place, which I never thought I wanted to go into. But it's exposed me to so much more. I work behind the scenes in marketing and as a PTA, and it's helped me see the inside of a business as well as the outside,” she said.
Another benefit from the program is the ability to save up for college. The internships available can be paid or unpaid depending on your ideal pathway, but choosing a paying job during the week allows students who might be struggling financially to build up their savings. Ella explains that the UPS has a program where they will pay for part of the student’s college, and building up this workplace experience opens the door for many scholarship opportunities.
This lengthy list of benefits has convinced the majority of seniors at Ballard to participate in this program. Ella and Delilah conclude by sharing that they would definitely sign up again, and that the co-op should be implemented in every high school.
