Eden Sutley needs little motivation to excel.The
senior at Lafayette High School is enrolled in the school's leadership
class, active in Student Council and many clubs, attends School Board
meetings on her own time and has applied to 10 colleges.
But not every student is this driven. Sutley and two other seniors
attempted to convey this message to the Workforce Development Committee
on Monday, a division of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce.
The committee is working on three initiatives with local schools:
A paid internship program for high school students and area businesses;
a recognition program with donations by businesses for use as student
rewards; and an 11-point "Success Skills" campaign that would be
promoted in schools and continually emphasized by guest speakers from
the business community.Motivational slogans, posters and mission
statements are posted all over Lafayette High and other city schools.
But Sutley and other students say most students don't pay attention to
them.
The committee is in the process of completing a poster that
could go in every classroom in Lafayette. It would list the 11 success
skills, designed by a local artist.
This would be just another poster listing rules to live by, Sutley said, and won't have an impact.
Instead,
she'd emphasize celebrity images, pop culture and examples of young,
accomplished people in business who embrace the success skills.
"If
you do posters, how about ones with celebrities or local stars on
them?" said Sutley, adding each could emphasize a key skill that helped
them find success.
Bringing in young speakers from the business
community, including ones who've found success without college, may
help students connect, said committee member Ernie Alexander.
"All
of your teachers are university graduates, but 70 percent of these kids
won't go to college," or may not want to, Alexander said.
The
career academies of five local high schools, and the W.D. Smith Career
Center, are looking for businesses that will hire student interns this
summer.
The goal is to have 200 paid local internships annually
for high school upperclassmen, said Bruce Leininger, president of
Accelerated Performance Resources.
By investing in local talent
at an early age, businesses will prepare a work force that's easily
accessible in Lafayette, Leininger said. Companies save money when they
can hire locally.
"This is part of our strategy," he said. "We
can no longer afford to be passive about what we receive from the
(education) system."
ADVERTISEMENT