Non-profit helps Lynn students prepare for careers in human services
LYNN - Inside the walls of Lynn Classical High School something fabulous is going on.
The non-profit Northeast Arc has partnered with Lynn public schools to launch Pathways to Opportunities. It's a mentorship program to prepare students for careers in human services.
"A lot of these kids came in not really knowing what it was about. Just that I had talked to them about how they could have a career after graduation, not just a job and they could get paid doing it," program director Maria Terris told WBZ-TV.
Students have taken the information from their mentors and applied it to real life situations, whether working with special needs or helping those with language barriers.
"We have students that need to work right now. They're supporting themselves, they're supporting families, they're contributing. So the ability for them to get trained and have meaningful positions coming right out of high school, we probably never had a great need here at Classical," said Lynn Classical principal Amy Dunn.
As for the students, they're excited to share their learning experiences together. It has many of them pointed towards their futures.
"For all of us to be able to take that step and to help because I know a lot of them want to be nurses or they want to work with children and this helps them get there. I think it's really great for that."
"So the chatter is very positive, very exciting. They talk specifically about the people they interacted with that they really, really enjoyed and want to see again," Terris said.
The after-school program is open to students in grades 9 through 12.
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