November 29, 2021 at 10:10 a.m.

SDR's Burke champions connecting schools with businesses through Inspire Rhinelander

SDR's Burke champions connecting schools with businesses through Inspire Rhinelander
SDR's Burke champions connecting schools with businesses through Inspire Rhinelander

The traditional education model has high school seniors taking one of three paths upon graduation: enrollment in a university or technical college, military service or a move directly into the workforce.

The emphasis in 2021, including in the School District of Rhinelander, is to make it as easy as possible for students to get a closer look at area and regional jobs that might interest them. This includes virtual job shadowing, virtual career events, youth co-op, company tours, job coaching and more. All of the offerings are available on a computerized "job board" that allows employers to post events and students to sign up.

District superintendent Eric Burke, who is in his second year in Rhinelander, imported the concept started by Inspire Sheboygan County in 2013 as a way to make it easier for students to connect with businesses.

"A few years ago, when I was a principal down in Port Washington, I was working with Inspire Sheboygan, and Inspire Sheboygan was doing something that was pretty unique in our state; they were connecting students to business and to employment," Burke said during the Nov. 15 school board meeting. "Down there, like up here, we need people to work and need jobs. And our students need to get some experiences."

When he arrived in Rhinelander, he learned that was it was also a goal of the Partners in Education (PIE) group.

The district is now working with CESA 6, PIE and Grow North to help establish Inspire at school districts in Forest, Florence, Marinette, Lincoln, Langlade, Oconto, Oneida and Vilas counties.

Burke said that the new initiative reinforces some of the other programs already in place at RHS, such as Pathways, while adding more features. So far, over 20 businesses have signed up as partners with the SDR program and have started working with students.

Candice Boutelle, who started Inspire Sheboygan and is now the executive director of Inspire Wisconsin, has worked with Burke, PIE, and Grow North to get the program up and running. She told the board that the more businesses of all sizes that start taking part in at least some of the offerings, the more connections will be available to students.

"That really is what this is all about, it's about making those connections," Boutelle said. "It's about having an exploration come alive in those students and have them really make those connections and all of a sudden start to see that this is a potential path forward for me. And what it takes is for everybody to come together and present opportunities for those students."

Inspire Rhinelander "is going to be incredible," she added.

Boutelle said over the eight years that Inspire Sheboygan has been in existence, it quickly became apparent that "we were thinking pretty short-sighted when we gave ourselves that moniker that is region-based."

"We understand now, after several school years working with our local schools, how powerful this system is and how it can be scaled and replicated across the entire state," Boutelle said. "And so, that's just what we've done."

As a non-profit organization, she said Inspire Wisconsin's mission is that "all students in Wisconsin will have meaningful, career-based learning experiences through our framework and our processes and that these students are graduating career ready with skills and experiences gained by connecting to employers and industry partners."

"You can see it takes both sides of the coin to make this work. We need industry partners and students equally on board with this," Boutelle added.

She said as the Inspire movement grew, it included regional groups tied to economic development agencies such as Grow North.

"But we always consider Rhinelander sort of our satellite site because it's been awesome to be connecting with the PIE group and the school and the counselors and administration and Mr. Burke in getting it up and running here," Boutelle said.

She emphasized that Inspire is "more than just a website or a tool."

"It's people behind the scenes doing that work. We had invested in technology and essentially a request form so that students can connect... and get the information that they need to reach out to the local employer," Boutelle said. "And we've seen that system work very well for all partners involved."

She said the website makes pairing a student with a potential job site so much less stressful for guidance counselors, because they don't have to keep track of all potential local employers.

The goal is that once the program has been scaled to reach every school district in the state, when a business signs up as a partner, it will reach "thousands of students."

"Because we want to keep those students in this region and let them know them know what the opportunities are in their own backyard," she said. "And it's really important that they are doing that exploration while they are still in high school, where they are saving probably both time and money by researching what is out there and what might be a good fit for them."

She said it was important to emphasize that the companies decide what job experiences they can offer.

"It can be very individualized, for both the employer and what you have the capacity for, depending on the size of your organization," Boutelle said. "And the same thing for students, it's very individualized, that they can go in and choose what they'd like to do when they're ready to do that type of activity."

While there is a lot of "value" in Inspire for the district and its students, Boutelle said it also has a value to the companies that take part.

"It's all about that connectivity and the framework that is put in place to make it really easy to kind of plug and play and really be able to make these connections with students," she said. "It also gives you an opportunity to gain an awareness of what your business needs are (in terms of future employees)."

For more information on the program, visit www.inspirewi.org.

Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].

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