In one room at Solomon-Plains Middle School, students learned about manufacturing. In another, they created business plans. Down the hall, the seventh and eighth graders balanced checkbooks and explored the trades.
Junior Achievement of Northeastern Pennsylvania presented its YES! program — Your Economic Success — to the students in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District on Thursday. The organization started the program at one school two years ago and will present it to 20 schools in Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wyoming and Wayne counties this year.
“We want them to connect something inside of themselves with one of these activities so that they can see themselves having a successful future,” said Susan Magnotta, Junior Achievement president. “So whether it's in the trades, whether it's in manufacturing, we want them to graduate from high school on a pathway to a future career.”
The program receives funding through a $200,000 Manufacturing PA Training-to-Career (MTTC) grant. Gwen Ross, director of workforce development initiatives with the state Department of Community and Economic Development, attended Thursday’s event and said manufacturing is a “priority industry” in Pennsylvania.
“It has changed so much since the yesterdays of the dark, dirty, dungeon-style to now exciting robotics and programming,” Ross said. “It's important to show students, especially young students, what that industry looks like and what opportunities there are for them within the industry.”
About 60 community members volunteered on Thursday, exposing students to different careers and possibilities.
Seventh grader Keysha De La Cruz wants to be a doctor. She said the many steps in manufacturing, including packaging and shipping, surprised her.
“We did a lot of stuff,” she said. “It was fun. I love it.”
Mackenzie Farrell, an eighth grader whose dad was a volunteer presenter, wants to be an athletic trainer. She appreciated learning about other careers.
“It's honestly opening you up to see new, different jobs... and people's different perspectives on it,” she said.
