ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Orange County is investing $1.25 million to expand career exploration opportunities for students through paid internships, career training, and other work-based learning experiences.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Orange County is adding $1.25 million to expand career exploration programs for youth
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$800,000 will go to CareerSource Central Florida and $450,000 to the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools
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The funding supports paid internships, career training, and other work-based learning opportunities
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Officials say the program has helped an estimated 750 to 850 students gain real-world job experience<\/p>\n
The funding will go to two organizations already working with students across the county. CareerSource Central Florida will receive $800,000, while the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools will receive $450,000.<\/p>\n
Leaders say the investment is designed to help more students gain real-world experience before they graduate.<\/p>\n
Parker Antoine, director of marketing for Orange County Public Schools Career and Technical Education, said the funding is essential to keeping the internship program going.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will give our students work-based, real-world learning experiences,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n
According to district leaders, the county\u2019s investment in the program has risen over time, allowing for more placement opportunities for students. Officials say the internship initiative is available county-wide and has helped an estimated 750 to 850 students over the years.<\/p>\n
Parker said one of the program\u2019s biggest strengths is that students are matched with opportunities connected to their career interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to match students up to their field of interest to give them a real look while they\u2019re getting paid in high school,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n
One of those students is Lou Vasconcelos Ferreira. The 18-year-old high school senior and salutatorian has spent two years working with the district\u2019s IT team through the internship program.<\/p>\n
Ferreira\u00a0said he first learned about the opportunity through his AP Computer Science class.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I was in AP Computer Science and my teacher came to me and offered me this opportunity. My friend and I just thought it would be a nice experience do over the summer and get experience in the field that I want to go in,\u201d\u00a0Ferreira said.<\/p>\n
During his internships,\u00a0Ferreira said he worked with school technology systems and helped troubleshoot issues for teachers and students.<\/p>\n
He also spent time re-imaging thousands of student computers and setting up smart boards and new teacher devices ahead of the school year.<\/p>\n
Ferreira\u00a0said the experience gave him a clearer picture of what working in technology looks like day to day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI plan on going into computer science for my major. Me having that experience and having the knowledge that I gained from the internship is definitely going to help me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said he is especially grateful for both the work experience and the chance to strengthen his resume before college.<\/p>\n
District leaders say students interested in the program can speak with their high school career specialist or CTE teacher to learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Orange County is investing $1.25 million to expand career exploration opportunities for students through paid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4996,1011,274,3949,113,1190,2204,115,139,141,140,278,2032],"class_list":["post-194124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-education","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bryanna-howard","tag-education","tag-human-interest","tag-instagram-n13","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}