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In early May, the Princeton City School District hosted its 4th annual breakfast event aimed at giving Princeton High School students and local community leaders and business partners the opportunity to interact and learn from each other.
Thirty-nine student ambassadors from Princeton High School and more than 150 community and business leaders from the Cincinnati area attended the event.
On behalf of Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted, regional representative Joshua Tovey addressed the room on Ohio’s commitment to economic growth and delivering more opportunities for innovative workforce practices, including encouraging schools to develop and manage work-based learning opportunities for students.
“We all have to work together,” stated Tovey. “Which is why I am grateful to see programs, like this one here at Princeton, that focus on raising a culture of innovators.”
A few high school seniors spoke about different pathways they plan to pursue after graduation and how Princeton prepared them along their educational journey - Joe Fortner is enrolled to attend Columbia University; Niko Brooksbank has enlisted to serve in the United States Marine Corp; and Lorenzio Velasquez has recently completed an internship with and will be employed by Jurgensen Companies. Each of these students emphasized the choices available to them to pursue while in high school as being an advantage to their future goals.
“Every day is a learning adventure,” Velasquez said about his internship at the headquarters of Jurgensen Companies in Sharonville. “There is always something new to learn and people to meet. I am grateful for the experiences the internship provided me because I feel more prepared. After graduation, I will be continuing to work at Jurgensen to expand my career and life opportunities.”
Tom Burton, district superintendent, spoke about how the district is empowering each student for college, career and life success while business partners shared advice and career opportunities with the students. He also encouraged them to become directly involved with student learning through Princeton’s newly-developed Work Ethic Certification Program, which was created to provide students with connections to “real-world” career exploration, identify the elements of sound work ethic, and to describe to students how skills are represented through high school requirements.
The inaugural year of the program included 26 speakers on topics related to interviewing, communication skills and community service. Business partners who collaborate in the program are asked to guarantee an interview for qualifying open jobs in their company for Princeton High School students who graduate with the certification on their diploma.
Princeton's Work Ethic Program looks at the six tenets of the SHRM https://www.shrm.org/
