Friday Experience, a new initiative at EHOVE Career Center, had a successful launch this May. Created to give students new opportunities and try new things outside of the classroom on a dedicated school day, it is a unique way for students to acquire crucial life skills, make new connections with people and businesses, and learn more about the community and what it offers. The idea stemmed from Butler Tech in Cincinnati, a career tech school that has successfully implemented the program monthly, and assisted EHOVE in building its own program.
High school students at EHOVE selected an activity in which to participate on May 3. Their choices included learning about art and architecture at the Allen Memorial Art Museum, touring greenhouses and planting vegetable at Bellwether Farm, exploring the outdoors at Findley State Park, discovering how to be a smart car shopper with Firelands Auto Group, volunteering with OHgo, working with professional fitness trainers at T3 Performance, learning how to golf at Thunderbird Hills Golf Course, touring the islands to learn about the local history, and several other opportunities to get involved with new skills and area businesses and organizations.
EHOVE Criminal Justice students Leanna Marianek (Perkins HS), Tyson Raymond (Bellevue HS) and Sancea Torres (Edison HS) got involved with the initiative through a SkillsUSA project that they created and have also named Friday Experience. SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. The Ohio chapter provides high school students the opportunity to participate in local, regional, state and national competitive events, and encourages students to give back to the community through various community service activities.
The team chose to focus on Friday Experience for their project because it fit into the SkillsUSA framework of those same concepts for one’s career and life. They noted that it addressed integrity, accountability, work ethic, self-motivation, adaptability, communication and professionalism. "We were talking about this project for months, organizing, planning, and talking about how much potential this project has,” said Marianek.. “Seeing the success of the project made all of those meetings and work after school completely worth it."
Marianek, Raymond and Torres developed specific objectives and goals that focus on promoting collaboration with area businesses and organizations, strengthening connection to the community, and building student relationships and a strong school culture, all to promote a healthy school environment and more varied opportunities for students’ resumes and well-being. "Watching everyone having fun with their Friday Experience made me really proud of my team for the hard work they put in every single day the whole school year," said Torres.
The students also wrote a script and were featured in a video about Friday Experience that introduced the program to all of their fellow high school students. It can be seen at www.EHOVE.net in the News section. They presented the project in the Community Service category at the SkillsUSA State competition in Columbus in April where they placed first, which qualified them to give their presentation at the SkillsUSA Nationals competition in Atlanta, Georgia in late June.
"Winning the SkillsUSA Community Service State competition in Columbus Ohio was a really cool experience and showed us the real potential of this project,” said Raymond. "We are really excited to present this project again at the National level. "
Future plans for Friday Experience include implementing them monthly for the 2024-2025 school year and expanding the offerings through even more businesses and organizations. The students say they’re excited to see how Friday Experience helps the school build itself up even more and creates even more connections and opportunities for the students and the community.
(L-R) EHOVE Criminal Justice students Sancea Torres and Leanna Marianek, Criminal Justice Instructor Tony Dauch, and Criminal Justice student Tyson Raymond. More photos available here.