Project Search is coming to La Crosse to help prepare students for careers

Gundersen Health System Project Search is looking for twelve students with developmental and intellectual disabilities from local Wisconsin schools to participate in a year-long training opportunity which will occur entirely at Gundersen. The student interns will participate in employment-related education and duties on the campus rotating through up to three departments each.

"We are really excited to get Project Search started at Gundersen," says Seth Maxinoski, Gundersen human resources assistant and one of the business liaisons for the program. "It’s a great program that will help build relationships with students who might work or learn differently, but they have a lot to add to our community."

Project Search was developed in 1996 at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and it has grown in other locations throughout the country including in Wisconsin. Organizers are hoping to place students in areas including Security, Physical Therapy, Laundry, Child Care, Service Excellence, Medical Media, Foodservice, Logistics, Environmental Services and other locations.

Project Search student objectives include:

• Receive classroom instruction on employability skills from a Holmen High School Instructor
• Participate in internships
• Work with a skills trainer and mentor to learn how to perform tasks independently
• Independence with or without assistive technology
• Graduate with the skills needed to obtain and maintain a community job

"Our primary goal for the students is to secure employment throughout the community with the skills they learn through the internship," says Renee Fraser, project sponsor and Gundersen director of Employee and Labor Relations. "And for Gundersen, we are looking at enriching our lives and gaining potentially great candidates for future hires."

Open house
To learn more about this program, plan to attend an open house on Monday, March 13, 6:15-8 pm., at Gundersen’s Integrated Center for Education (ICE House) on their La Crosse campus.

For more information contact Jenn Slusser, Transition Coordinator for Holmen High School at (608) 526-3372 or Ann Wales, HR Consultant for Gundersen Health System Human Resources at (608) 775-0596.