Rhinelander High School is getting a grant to fund a career training program.
AT&T is donating $30,000 to fund the Jobs for America’s Graduates – or JAG—program.
Regional JAG coordinator Sandy Sobek Leslie says it’s a national career development program, aimed especially at students who are at risk for not graduating.
“We try to integrate right into the school day, so the kids are in our classrooms as part of their curriculum that they’re already involved in. So we find our way into homerooms, or advisories.”
The JAG program helps connects students to career resources. That can mean setting up career shadowing, mock-interviews, or field trips to local businesses.
AT&T spokesperson Robin Gruner says the Rhinelander grant is part of a one million dollar grant to JAG programs nationwide. She says there are good reasons for a company to invest in local schools.
“We see kids in high school as our future workforce, quite frankly. They are the people that are going to be doing the jobs that we’re doing today. So they’re gonna be the new external affairs directors, the new engineers. They’re gonna be the new innovators.”
Students from Northwoods Community Secondary charter school are also involved in JAG. Money from the federal Workforce Investment Act funded the first year of the program at RHS. It’s continuing thanks to the new grant.
