Patrick Keene has joined The Internet Connection team after completing The Northampton School-to-Careers program.
Northampton - The Northampton Schools-to-Career program took their first step in September of 1996 with The Northampton Chamber of Commerce Education Committee to have interns from local high schools placed with area business. The effort was to improve both the education and career preparation of students by integrating "real life" experiences into their schooling, motivating them to learn, readying them for work, and enabling them to make informed post-secondary choices.
Patrick Keene is one of the first to be hired full time from the Northampton Schools-to-Careers program. "We're very excited to have him full time", said Victoria A. White of the Internet Connection who chose Mr. Keene as an intern through the S-T-C program in February. "This program is not necessarily geared for job placement but the training Patrick received from eight of hours a week made him the best candidate for the position we had open."
Mr. Keene has been a resident of Northampton all his life and is a '97 graduate from Northampton High School. He initially became interested in the S-T-C program this past winter from a flyer at school and met with Northampton's S-T-C coordinator, Beth Elliot. After they both discussed Mr. Keene's interest and hobbies, most which included computers and computer fields, they called and set up an interview with The Internet Connection - a participant in The Chamber's Education Committee and the S-T-C program. "It was a perfect match, bringing together a bright student like Patrick and a great company like The Internet Connection," said Ms. Elliot. "I look forward to many more success stories like this one".
On January 25, 1996 the Hampshire County School-to Career Partnership initiative was born. Ms. White has been involved with this program from the beginning. She attended a Bay State Skills Corporation conference on "Communities and Schools for Career Success (CS2)" in Boston, April of 1996. There they discussed how the goals and strategies of career development and school-to-work efforts could be integrated into each of the curriculum frameworks and by doing so further the learning standards and student outcomes.
After that conference, Ms. White attended the National Leadership Forum on School-to-Work Transition on June 30 - July 2, 1996 in Long Beach, California and returned to give a presentation about School-to-Work to the Northampton Chamber of Commerce Education Committee. There she discussed some pros; fulfilling the goal of enhancing our community together and bringing real life experiences and objectives to the educational arena, and the cons of implementing this program here; Does this encourage kids to work instead of going to college? Will business be accepting of this program (business time = money)?
Now the results are in. "I will take this valuable experience with me in any thing I do" said Mr. Keene. That is for sure, he will be working full time at The Internet Connection updating web sites, creating animations, and other projects. Then he plans to continue his studies in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts as well as spend time with the Army Reserves this fall.
Ms. White plans to continue working with the School-to-Careers program and other educational issues. She attended the Planning Conference: Developing an Arts/Communications/Humanities Career Pathway on February 6, 1997 at the Northampton Center for the Arts. She is also a member of the Northampton Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, and Education Committee.
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