Baldwin Whitehall school leaders are calling it the fusion program. It launches this fall and will allow students to spend time in the classroom and also leave campus to explore future careers.
“It’s the question we’ve asked kids since the beginning of time ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ ‘What are you going to do when you leave high school?’” said Brandon Whitfield, the assistant principal at Baldwin High School.
That answer rarely changes as the answer for most is that they don’t know. That’s why Baldwin-Whitehall School District is launching this new program for junior and senior students.
“We want to give them career exploration opportunities, where they are learning here before they leave us, if they want to explore college, the career force or the military they have the opportunity to try those out before they invest a lot of money in the wrong decision or wrong pathway,” said Dr. Kara Eckert, a deputy superintendent at the district.
The program would allow students to take up to two classes online with teacher support. During that class time, they would partner with a community organization for an internship.
“Every kid learns differently and this is an opportunity for them to learn at their own pace with flexibility,” Whitfield said.
The district is working to break the mold, presenting the idea to community partners on Monday to get them on board to accept the interns.
The outpouring of interest from students is huge, as 150 students are already looking to join this new venture.
“We are just hoping to allow our students to see there is more to learning beyond our four walls of our high school,” Dr. Eckert said.
In order to get the program off the ground for the fall, the district does need partners willing to take some of the interns and follow their guidelines. If you are interested, you can give the district a call.
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