A select group of 12 students will find real world work experiences at Tradition Medical Center next month as they enter the School District’s Project Search program. These students will get hands-on training in various medical rotations in the hope of finding their own passions and landing a job after the program is done.
“We’re beyond excited,” said Executive Director of Exceptional Student Education and Student Services Bill Tomlinson. “We couldn’t ask for anybody better” to partner with.
The students are those classified as special needs – seniors who are transitioning out of high school. They are between the ages of 18 and 21 who have satisfied their graduation requirements but have not yet accepted their high school diplomas.
They get to work Aug. 7 when they arrive at Keiser University in Tradition and receive their medical scrubs and start training. Each of the students will be assigned a job coach – someone to provide them with feedback and support as they proceed through the program.
Students will work a total of three rotations based on their areas of interest, according to program specialist Lesa Kitzmiller. Such areas include bio-medical, emergency services, environmental services, warehouse, nutrition, central sterilization and surgery, to name a few.
The students toured Tradition Medical Center a few months ago and got a feel for what the hospital could offer.
For St. Lucie County Public Schools, this has been an endeavor several years in the making, Tomlinson said, explaining that Martin County Schools already has been involved with Project Search through a partnership with Martin Health System and the hospital in Stuart.
With Martin Health’s expansion into Tradition with the Tradition Medical Center, the timing was finally right to expand Project Search into St. Lucie County.
Kitzmiller and Dawna Guiel, director of Exceptional Student Education, spent months meeting with all the different partners to make sure the project would be a go, including with Martin Health System, Keiser University, the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation and employU.
“There’s been a lot of planning,” Guiel said, explaining that the School District has worked through the various legal departments to ensure that each agency understands its responsibilities, as well as coordination with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, which established Project Search nearly 20 years ago.
Tomlinson said the ultimate goal of Project Search is to have the students complete a full year’s program and secure employment that utilizes the skills they learned at Tradition Medical Center. He said there is no guarantee the students will be offered jobs at the hospital itself, but they could be eligible for jobs elsewhere.
“It makes them so much more employable,” Tomlinson said.
The students could get work in offices, filing or food service, to name a couple categories of potential employment.
Project Search will allow the students to get experience in patient care within an authentic environment, according to Tomlinson – something that can’t be replicated in the classroom. The students will see first-hand the demands of a fast-paced work environment and strive to meet the expectations set for them.
“This is an untapped population,” Tomlinson said of people with special needs. “They want to work. They want to contribute.”
The program is capped at 12 students. Once established, the School District could expand Project Search to other industries if such industries were interested in partnering.
