Huntington High School gets down to business

photo by shannon simbulan

Business is up and running at Huntington High School in Huntington, W.Va.  thanks to about 60 freshmen and The Education Alliance, according to a report by Bill Rosenberger in the Huntington Herald Dispatch. The program, WV eMentoring, connects students to business leaders via a secure question and answer format.

Jobs nationwide and especially in West Virginia are often not available to young job seekers. The thought here is that high school is the right time to begin preparing for a vocation. This has the potential to benefit both the students and the business professionals who will have a working list of interested potential employees.

Travis Austin, a history teacher, is instructing this program. His thoughts, as recorded by Rosenberger: "It's an opportunity to speak with and converse with mentors from across the state.  It's going to provide students with a very relevant experience as they think about entering the work force or college."

Under the Education Alliance program are various educational groups designed to further education. In West Virginia it began in 1983 when several business leader decided to help shape the future of the work force. In 1984, Partnerships in Education began. In 1999 West Virginia had the first program nationwide that linked all their schools with at least one business partner.

How does WV eMentoring work? It is an integrated class that meets once a week for 10 weeks where nine to 12 students meet to discuss, plan and think about their future as contributing members of society. While the setting is in a group, the eMentoring is an ongoing one on one engagement where dedicated businesses answers questions from interested hopeful students.

The website is secure. While the activity of the students is in the classroom, the mentors can answer the questions asked whenever they find the time. This is absolutely not a chat room where everything goes. The instructor is always in command of the communication that is ongoing between a mentor and the student. Neither do they personally identify themselves.

In addition to the WV eMentoring, other educational and business alliances are Walk the Talk, where at risk students are challenged to work harder. Frontline Network where five WV counties have grouped together to help their students achieve.

In Huntington, another worth while group, State Scholars, where the Cabell County Schools, the Education Alliance, and Huntington Area Development Council (HADCO) "launched the State Scholars Initiative (SSI), a nationally designed program that seeks to enrich the education of Cabell County high school students."

Education has been a priority in West Virginia and that is especially true in Huntington, the state's second largest city. Marshall University, the ever expanding university sees to that. They are, quite naturally, helped along with a cheering crowd of residents who will be watching and waiting for the first signs that this new endeavor at Huntington High School will pay dividends in future employment for the community, for the state, and possibly for the nation.