Team Elevate
Team Members: Katherine Bergmann, Michael Eckard, Mike Fuller, Traci Grant, Grace Hamilton, Kevin Mitchell, Kristen Nichols, Philip Padgett
ELEVATING Community Change with Purpose creates a sustainable partnership between the Berkeley County School District and a community-based non-profit organization, Community Change with Purpose, to address the career readiness gap among area high school students.
Like many school districts in South Carolina, Berkeley County schools have a significant number of graduating high school students that are not career or college ready. Recent data from SC School Report Cards (screportcards.com) suggests a lower percentage of students in Berkeley County schools are prepared for careers compared to students in neighboring Charleston County. Likely contributing to this disparity is the limited visibility and access for students in rural parts of the county to area employment opportunities.
The Berkeley County School District actively seeks to engage students with outreach and activities designed to inspire an imagination for excellent career opportunities in the region, but the School District struggles to reach rural students effectively. At the same time, community-based organizations in rural parts of the county have a passion for reaching students and the relational capital to do so, but they struggle to do so effectively due to lack of resources and coordination with the School District. Community Change with Purpose is one such organization with strong ties in marginalized parts of the county.
This project creates and empowers a partnership between the School District and Community Change with Purpose through a pilot program to focus on 30 graduating students from Timberland High School identified as not being career ready. The program begins with Community Change with Purpose leveraging its local knowledge and relationships to help the School District identify and connect with at-risk students and to facilitate the students completing a survey to identify talents and areas of interests. Students participate in organized instructional sessions on job applications, resumes, interviewing skills, and soft skills led by experts from the School District, Community Change with Purpose, and local employers. Students then progress to live mock-interview sessions with HR professionals and hiring managers from area employers, receiving constructive feedback and guidance.
Finally, students are exposed to high-valued area career opportunities and networking through on-site visits with some of the best employers in the region. The pilot program includes visits to the SC Ports Authority, Volvo Cars, Berkeley Electric, Santee Cooper, and The Culinary Institute of Charleston at Trident Technical College. These site visits featured discussions between students and professionals, providing real-world examples of career opportunities and giving students visibility to area employers. At the conclusion of the pilot program, the School District and Community Change with Purpose anticipate both that participating students will be career ready and that they will be able to scale the program to reach students at other rural schools throughout the county for years to come.
The project demonstrates the self-sustainability and effectiveness of community partnerships in helping to prepare high school students for desirable careers in the area. The project leverages best practices learned from initiatives in other neighboring communities and acts as a force multiplier to existing initiatives in Berkeley County to inspire and equip students for successful careers that match the needs of leading employers in the region.