At Turner High School, students can take coursework through numerous Career and Technical Education pathways. These classes offer a great opportunity to learn industry-specific skills. To further their classroom experience and knowledge, students can pursue Real World Learning opportunities, like internships, client connected projects, and industry shadowing. The ability for students to pursue those opportunities through Turner High School and Journey School of Choice will be expanding with the assistance of a grant from the Kauffman Education Foundation.

The Real World Learning Implementation Grant for $330,000 will be distributed over a three year period. In addition to more resources, the grant covers funds for the district's Real World Learning Coordinator position, Dr. Frankie Lizar.

Dr. Lizar spent many years as an assistant principal at Turner High School, and beginning this school year, she is the Journey School of Choice Principal and the district’s Real World Learning Coordinator.

Through the grant, the district receives funding as well as professional development opportunities and support from the Kauffman Foundation. This summer, several Turner High School teachers attended a learning opportunity through the MVA Teacher Network CCP Apprenticeship program.

Collin Chenoweth, social studies teacher, was one of those participants and found the experience incredibly valuable. “Real World Learning takes the learning experience from a hypothetical one, to one of real importance and challenges. When students connect with groups in their community it brings their learning to a much deeper and meaningful level. RWL is much more than volunteering to help local organizations. It is a partnership with local organizations that entrust a unique challenge they face onto the student groups to solve and overcome. These partnerships fosters a deeper community connection between current employers and future employees,” said Chenoweth.

Through this summer program, the staff attendees were able to think through how they could implement Client Connected Projects in their programs. Drew Garner, who teaches in the health science pathway, left with the idea to have his students work with local healthcare facilities to create home health kits for community members.

In addition to professional development for teachers throughout the school year, Dr. Lizar created an advisory committee along with a professional learning cohort. Both groups feature a variety of staff members and perspectives and meet with the purpose of thinking through Real World Learning offerings within the post-secondary asset graduation requirement.

An important component of Real World Learning implementation success is student voice. This school year, Turner High School has two students serving as Real World Learning Ambassadors: Chit May and Daniela Ancheta.

This is a paid opportunity through the Kauffman Foundation for which they will attend six workshops throughout the school year aimed at answering the question, “How might we raise awareness about Real World Learning in our schools and communities with primary stakeholders—students, parents, employers?”

Both are already bought into the idea of Real World Learning. May sees value in learning beyond a classroom setting, “The whole purpose of real world learning is to let you get a glimpse of your future, that leads to curiosity and discovering ultimately what is best for yourself,” she shared.

Since being named as the district’s Real World Learning Coordinator, Dr. Lizar has been pursuing partnerships that will allow more opportunities for high school students to participate in internship and apprenticeship programs. Importantly, these programs are able to take place during the school day, meaning students can receive course credit while getting a start on their careers.

Because of these partnerships with organizations like Workforce Partnership, among many others, we look forward to sharing more stories about student Real World Learning experiences over the course of the school year.

School's Out for Summer Internships!

This summer, Chit May and Daniela Ancheta were selected to participate in a paid student internship through ProX.

May was selected for an internship through St. Luke’s Health System. After learning about the program, she was eager to apply, particularly because as a high school student, it can be difficult to have access to internships in the healthcare field in particular.

The schedule and location varied each day. “We often would travel to different hospitals in the Saint Lukes Health System throughout the week. Some of the days we would sit through the CNA and MA programs to learn skills, and the rest of the days we would be shadowing nurses or nurse educators,” shared May.

Ancheta spent her internship at the Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce in the role of Small Business Program Coordinator.

She liked several aspects of the internship and expanded her knowledge in the business industry, “I learned about the business aspect of the metro area and how many entrepreneurs of color struggled receiving funding and not knowing what resources were available to them.”

In addition to being paid for this internship experience, May and Ancheta will also receive course credit through the high school.