Patriot News MN

The area’s Connections Transition Program is a program started in 2017 to meet the needs of students who are on an Individual Education Plan and continued to demonstrate needs within five areas of transition. Areas the program concentrates on are;

• Post-Secondary Education and Training;

• Employment and Vocational Skills;

• Independent living skills (Home Living, Community Participation, and Recreation and Leisure).

The group arrived at the Patriot offices at around 9 am on January 23 and Patriot staff walked through the process it takes to put newspapers, community guides, mailers and TV screen advertising together each week. The group was then given the latest edition of the newspaper and posed for a photograph.

The program has two teachers and two Work Experience Coordinators in separate locations to meet the needs of students from three districts.

Mary Walsh, Transition Instructor, and Keith O’Brien, Work Experience Coordinator, are based in Big Lake and have three paraprofessionals; Jim Anderson, Stacy Bragelman, and Amy Otto.

Taylor Peterson is the teacher based in Monticello and works with Jen Fox, Work Experience Coordinator; Ali Noble, and Beth Remarcik as paraprofessionals.

In the programs, the students not only focus on job readiness training but also stamina on the job and longevity in these entry-level positions. While students work on these skills they also focus on budgeting, citizenship, appropriate recreation/leisure activities, and other independent living skills. Some students need extra support in tackling the tasks of searching and applying for college or trade school.

The programs partner with the Big Lake Community Food Shelf and the Monticello Help Center. They utilize these spaces to teach job skills within their facilities like prioritizing tasks, organizing products, stocking shelves, customer service, keeping their work space clean working at a fast pace, and working collaboratively with other students as well as community members.

As part of the program, the teachers and coordinators try to expose the students to different businesses and job/career opportunities. Some of the businesses they partner with or have visited include;

• Patriot Newspaper;

• Big Lake Community Food Shelf;

• Monticello Help Center;

• Legacy 2 Inspire Trailer;

• Dueling Brews;

• CentraCare Ambulance;

• McDonald’s Meats

• Veit;

• Aroplax;

• Kare 11 Studios;

• Elk River YMCA;

• Becker Community Center;

• McDonald’s of Big Lake and Becker;

• Bondhus Corporation;

• McPete’s;

• St. Cloud Technical and Community College;

• Anoka Technical College;

• Anoka Ramsey Community College;

• WIHA - Monticello;

• Central Minnesota Jobs and Training;

• Vocational Rehabilitation Services.

This program has had the opportunity to support students to live as independently as possible. Following are some of the places where students are working full-time after graduating from the program:

• One student completed a degree in Cardiovascular Technology from SCTCC and an internship with Mercy Hospital. This student worked at CentraCare as an Environmental Services worker while completing her training;

• Three students finished their Computer Programming degree from SCTCC - 2 and are now working for Big Lake Schools in the IT department;

• Some are attending St. Cloud Community and Technical College full-time online and while working full-time at WIHA;

• Some are attending Technical College for a certificate in IT and attending Connections.

• Bondhus Full - Forklift Driver;

• Bondhus Assembler Workers - Full-time employees’

• Becker Furniture World;

• Runnings of Monticello;

• Holiday Station Stores;

• Lupulin;

• Darter Plastics;

• Absolute Sourcing;

• Becker Schools Cafeteria;