Anna Pearl Johnson graduated from Mac High in 2018. After a year of college out of state, she’s back for the summer and helping the pilot Career Bound employment program launched this year by the McMinnville Economic Development Partnership (MEDP).
The Career Bound program matches new graduates with full-time summer jobs that could lead to a career in the field. The program is targeted toward students who do not plan to attend four-year colleges.
“We have four students who graduated from Mac High in this year’s pilot,” she says.
Former Grizzlies include Iris Armenta and Marckus Smith with Solid Form, Kyle Bertagna with NW Rapid Manufacturing, and Hayden Meek-Avedovech with OnlineNW.
“I’m an intern coordinating an intern program,” says Johnson. “I’m transferring to the University of Oregon’s Clark Honors College in the fall and plan to major in Planning, Public Policy, and Management.
“I think that major is pretty broad and includes project management and event planning, which are things I’m doing this summer with the program.”
Part of the Career Bound program is to help new employees learn soft skills designed to help them advance in the workplace, as well as offer the interns a chance to learn directly from local business leaders about what they look for in new hires and how those hires can do their best work and move upward.
The program is designed with local employers to build a workforce of skilled workers who can fill the rising need in the skilled trades like fabrication, construction, plumbing and electric industries.
The pilot is separate from the McMinnville WORKS Summer Internship Program, which seeks to attract college students to develop career-minded opportunities in McMinnville.
7/10/2019