The West Windsor-Plainsboro School District is preparing to embark on a program that will give seniors an opportunity to get credit working as interns at area companies.##M:[more]##
The main goal of the program, called Senior Options, is to give students experience in real-life business situations in fields that they want to study in college.
Senior Options, in its first year, was approved by the WW-P Board of Education last year. The students — about 10 from each high school — are expected to work with the companies between the beginning of February and the end May, according to William Totaro, the instructor for the High School North program.
He adds that 10 students “is a good manageable number” to start the program with. “If successful, the number could expand. One of the ways we will measure success will be by the renewal of sponsors and by the addition of other sponsors.”
He points out that Senior Options is not like a work-study program where students do things like filing and answer the phone. The companies have agreed to let the students have involvement in some of the tasks they would be performing if they were employed in their field.
The program calls for the participants to work between noon and 4 p.m., four days a week. On Fridays, Totaro and Brian Welsh, the program’s teacher at HS South, will meet with the students for business instruction and to review the students’ progress. “We’ll hold a seminar to talk about various business protocols, activities, and what happened to them during the week.” The students will also be required to keep journals of their experiences.
In order to qualify, students had to submit an application, write an essay, and “express their desire and dedication” to be chosen to be a participant, says Totaro.
At the same time, the district is in the process of recruiting businesses for the program by working with the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce and the West Windsor-Plainsboro Education Foundation.
Chamber President Kristin Appelget, a West Windsor councilwoman and graduate of WW-P High School, says she is helping to identify area businesses that will accept interns in areas of the student’s choice. They include accounting, law, sports, marketing, and medicine.
“I’ve found businesses to be very receptive,” Appelget says. “There’s a real desire to want to be involved with the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District because of its reputation.”
According to Appelget, thus far she has helped arrange for a student to work in the Princeton University athletics department. The Chamber is also trying to match a student with an interest in forensics with the State Police laboratory in Hamilton. She adds that she has also identified some legal firms and accounting practices that want to be involved.
Appelget says that the program is valuable because it not only gives the students real-world experience in the workplace, it can also help them decide whether they are choosing the right career path.
Sometimes students graduate, get a job, and find out they don’t like the career they studied for, she says. “They watch shows like CSI and Scrubs and have certain expectation. Then they get out of college and find out that the the workplace isn’t always like it is on TV.”
Totaro agrees. “One of the dilemmas students face as they’re going into college is choosing a career. I realize the program is a taste, it’s not a big drink of the work environment, but it gives them a chance to have exposure to a job they think they’ll like. They’ll also be getting a feel for what it’s like when they will have to make the transition from college life to business life.”
Appelget says she became involved after being contacted by Marcia Fleres, executive director of the WW-P Education Foundation, a group whose mission is to supporting strategic educational programs provided through the school district.
“I’ve noticed that businesses in the area want to support schools but the way schools talk and the way businesses talk are different,” Appelget says. “I’m working to help bridge the gap.
Meanwhile, Totaro says he is impressed with the students enrolled in the program. “For being 17 or 18, they have a real level of commitment and willingness to learn. I think it says a lot about why the school district is top in the state.
“Far and away, these 10 represent us so well,” he adds. “We have no doubt the kids will deliver, because they’ve always delivered. We’re just working hard to make sure that the program delivers as well.”
Administrator Hired
The WW-P School District has hired Thomas Smith as the new director of pupil services/planning.
Effective November 28, Smith will be charged with oversight of numerous departments including special education, guidance, gifted and talented, guidance, basic skills instruction, English as a second language, nursing, and athletics.
Smith assumes the position vacated by Jon Cosse, who retired from the district this summer. After Cosse’s departure, the position’s title was changed from assistant superintendent to director.
Smith is currently employed as director of special services/special projects at the Spotswood Public School District, where he worked September 2001.
Prior to that job, he worked as a teacher in WW-P between September, 1993, and June, 1998, and assistant supervisor of special services between August, 1998, and August, 2001.
Test Disparity?
Careful readers of the article in the November 4 issue of the News on the performance of West Windsor-Plainsboro students on standardized tests may have noted a potentially troubling disparity between the results at the two middle schools.
The report stated that, on the 2005 TerraNova test assessing reading, language arts, and math for sixth graders, students at Grover Middle School scored in the 91st percentile overall, while students at Community Middle School scored in 80th percentile. Since students at Grover feed into High School South, and Community moves on to North, such a disparity between the two schools could suggest a problem for a school district that hopes for close to equal academic levels at both high schools.
But, as the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, Victoria Kniewel, confirmed in a subsequent phone interview, the Community score was based on a typographical error. Community sixth graders overall scored in the 89th percentile, virtually the same as Grover’s 91st.
