The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, October 20, 1999, Page 6, Image 6

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    Tonight Only!
Curtis Salgado
Inspired John Belushi’s Jake Blues Character
Former Front Man For Robert Cray,
Roomful of Blues and Santana
- I
-
Lied Center for Performing Arts
Lincoln, NE
Tickets: 472-4747 or
1-800-432-3231
Box Office: 11:00am-5:30pm M-F
TEN YEARS Website: www.unl.edu/lied/
VTJ i.,,, .1, , tied Center programming is aupportad by Ihe Friends ol tied and grafts 1mm tie Nrtonal Endowment lor tie Am,
lNcOIaSKfl Mid-America Arts Aiance and tie Nebraska Arts Counci. At events are made possUe by the Lied Performance
MMlH m I mill Fund «Mch has been estabished in memory ot Ernst F. lied and Ns parents, EmstM. and Ida K. Lied.
!
GED a path to new start
■ Johanns honors adult
basic education in ceremony
and designates a week in its
honor.
By Josh Funk
Editor
GED graduate Janet Vaughn knew
that her Upgrade education wouldn’t
get very far, especially with two
daughters.
“I probably would have been on
welfare (without a GED),” Vaughn
said.
To her and many others, a GED
offers a new beginning.
Dropouts don’t usually miss hav
ing an education until they see missed
opportunities in their own lives, said
Douglas Christensen, Nebraska’s com
missioner of education.
During the last fiscal year, more
than 16,000 Nebraskans attended adult
basic education classes, but that is only
8 percent of the citizens the program
aims to serve, Christensen said.
The state provides basic classes for
those with less than a ninth-grade edu
cation, English as a second language
courses and secondary education.
These programs helped 1,847 people
earn their GEDs or diplomas during
fiscal year 1999.
Tuesday, Gov. Mike Johanns dedi
cated this week to Adult Basic
Education Awareness in a Capitol cer
emony that lauded the programs’ suc
cesses and campaigned for more state
money.
“This is something where the
wheels of government have not kept
pace (with the need),” said Sen. Dennis
Byars of Beatrice. Currently these pro
grams are budgeted at about $2 mil
lion, though $ 1.7 million of that comes
from the federal government.
The state department of education
relies on volunteers to assist paid direc
tors and instructors, Adult Education
Director Vicki Bauer said.
Christensen said more money and
volunteers are needed to improve and
expand the network of 150 existing
instruction sites throughout the state.
“We need a safety net for all our
children that drop out of school - that’s
14 percent,” Christensen said. “Or else
they will fall to other welfare pro
grams.”
When 17-year-old Alan Bright
dropped out of a Lincoln high school
last spring, he went directly to
Southeast Community College’s GED
program.
Bright said the one-on-one atmos
phere was conducive to learning.
“I’m less afraid now to ask ques
tions,” said Bright, who plans to enroll
in an architectural drafting program
after his GED. “I know (the teacher
will) give me an answer I can under
stand.”
Completing high school and mov
ing on to other goals in life is impor
tant, especially for parents, GED grad
uate Lupe Avelar of Crete said.
“The most important thing was
showing my children that no matter
how long it takes, dreams and goals are
worth doing,” Avelar said.
School program gets more funds
ByGwenTietgen
Staff writer
The Nebraska School-to-Career
program received a $625,000 federal
grant to help sustain local partnerships
as its federal funding ends in the year
2000.
The grant will support programs
from Nov. 1 of this year to Oct. 31,2000.
When this funding ends, it is up to
local partnership boards to sustain the
work by integrating School-to-Career
into the school system’s curriculum,
said Barb Hopkins, director of Ventures
in Partnerships, which is Lincoln’s
School-to-Career program.
School-to-Career is a nationwide
program helping students apply their
classroom lessons to the workplace.
Nebraska’s program started in 1995 as
part of a five-year federal grant.
Nebraska identified specific areas
that it sees as key to carrying forward its
School-to-Career efforts.
These areas include industry-regu
lated skill standards, instruction, assess
ment and personnel financing, a focus
on rural areas of the state and mentor
training.
According to recent statistics, 62
percent of high schools and 39 percent
of elementary schools participate in
Nebraska’s program.
A total of 1,164 businesses partici
pate in the program in Nebraska, which
is a higher percentage than other pro
grams in the United States.
One local partnership through
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This is a great way for students to decide on a
career before they go to college and can
eliminate changing majors four or five times.”
Julie Zimmerman
School-to-Career coordinator at Lincoln Southeast High School
Lincoln Public Schools is an internship
program at Lincoln Southeast High
School.
The internship program at Lincoln
Southeast is open to all seniors.
Students attend class for two weeks to
arrange their internships and spend five
to 10 hours per week for the rest of die
semester with their sponsors.
Students are required to keep a daily
journal of their activities.
At the end of the semester, the stu
dents present projects that demonstrate
what they’ve learned.
“We have about 50 students
throughout the year take part in the pro
gram,” said Julie Zimmerman, School
to-Career coordinator at Lincoln
Southeast.
“This is a great way for students to
decide on a career before they go to col
lege and can eliminate changing majors
four or five times.”
Nate Rittgam, a senior at Lincoln
Southeast, is interning at HWS
Consulting Group Inc.
Rittgam was trained to use
Automatic Computer Aided Drafting
and Design - AutoC ADD - the compa
ny’s computerized drafting program.
After an engineer has made correc
tions to a drawing, Rittgarn takes the
drawing and corrects it electronically.
“It’s helped me out a lot and given
me an overall perspective of how a busi
ness is run,” Rittgarn said
“My internship has given me a bet
ter idea of what I want to do in college.”
Lauren Johnson, a Lincoln
Southeast senior, is interning at
Cubesoft Neverdehl-Loft Associates.
Johnson works with Web page
design, networking and programming.
“It’s given me an idea about what I
really want to do,” Johnson said. “I think
I’m on the right track, and hopefully I’ll
get a job offer out of the experience.”
Dari Naumann, team leader of busi
ness development at the Nebraska
Department of Economic
Development, said the program helps
students prepare for the work force.
“What the School-to-Career system
does is prepare individuals to learn to
communicate effectively, solve prob
lems, learn effective work habits, be
responsible citizens and develop a sense
of health and wellness,” he said.