MILWAUKEE — MPS student interns with disabilities in Project SEARCH toured state legislators at Milwaukee Mitchell International airport and showed them what they do at their internships.
Project SEARCH is a program that provides high school students with disabilities with three different 10-week internship rotations per school year. The goal is to help transition these students directly from school to work after graduation. The program started in 1996 at Cincinnati Children’s hospital, and has expanded to 711 programs in 48 states and 10 countries.
There are 30 Project SEARCH programs in Wisconsin, and Mitchell International Airport is the only site worldwide where students can intern at an airport. Project SEARCH partners with Goodwill, Milwaukee Public Schools, and the Department of Workforce Development for this specific program.
Project SEARCH Instructor Karina Tweedell told WTMJ what the interns do day-to-day.
Project SEARCH MPS interns(who all have disabilities) giving a tour to state legislators of what they do during their 10 week airport job internships
— Julien Johnson (@jujuelz_is) April 22, 2024
Project SEARCH Instructor Karina Tweedall on what their program is:@620wtmj pic.twitter.com/pliReylNuZ
“Our interns come in everyday and stay here for the whole day where they receive a combination of vocational training. I teach them a class with our Goodwill Skill Trainers,” she said. “And they also spend about four and a half hours at different airport sites where they practice their job skills.”
She said the program has two main goals.
“One, we’re trying to prepare our young people for the world of work. They obviously face some systemic barriers having a disability and trying to adapt to a world that very well might not be suited for them,” she said. “The second… is familiarizing the other workers who might not be as accustomed to working with people with disabilities [on] how to be more inclusive and how to be more accepting and welcoming.”
Intern from Milwaukee School of Languages, Nick, told WTMJ what the program has done for him.
“I’m more independent and can go off and do plenty of things now,” he said.
He said he’s also been able to meet some famous people at the airport as well.
“I met Giannis [Antetokounmpo’s] little brother, Alex [Antetokounmpo], before,” he said. “Shoutout to him.”
2018 Project SEARCH Alumni Jordan Wagner currently works at a gift shop inside the airport, and he told WTMJ he’s also seen a few different celebrities while working.
“Some of the celebrities I’ve met are Donald Driver, a wrestler called Gangrel, [and] Vanilla Ice,” he said.
Wagner, who’s one of the first Project SEARCH interns, does many day-to-day tasks such as selling merchandise in the shops and delivering products in the warehouse as well. He’s also a mentor to people who are currently in the Project SEARCH program.
Jehona Pritchard, a General Manager at Milwaukee Airport, shares how vital the program is at the airport
— Julien Johnson (@jujuelz_is) April 22, 2024
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2018 Project SEARCH Alumni Jordan Wagner shares what his time at the program was like and his current airport job@620wtmj pic.twitter.com/FfkJtUSaY0
“Part of the reason I wanted to mentor is I enjoy helping, and I like helping to teach new people,” he said. “The most important thing [for people in the program] is to get the experience.”
Jehona Prichard, general manager with Paradies Lagardère Travel Retail, told WTMJ what a big help people in the program are at the airport.
“Project SEARCH interns have been an integral piece of our puzzle here at the Milwaukee airport, especially after the pandemic,” she said. “The interns just help us bridge that gap sometimes.”
She gave an example.
“When [cheese] comes in fresh in the middle of the day, and our people our delivering other things,” Prichard said. “Project SEARCH interns can run down the cheese so it’s in the coolers, and it’s the squeakiest it can be.”
She expressed more how much the airport values the interns.
“They’ve helped our team become even stronger. The acceptance and the inclusiveness and the culture that we’ve created is something I’m very proud of,” she said. “There’s no way we’ve been able to do it without Project SEARCH.”
Prichard shared how proud she is of Wagner as he has been so integral to her team even back when they decided to hire him at the airport.
“We hired him on because he kept growing and growing as an associate, as a person… he fit into our team,” she said. “Our warehouse associates were [saying], ‘Please hire him! Please hire him! Please hire him! We don’t know how to do this after he’s gone,’ and he’s been with us ever since [2018.]”
Goodwill Skills Trainer Matthew Herman works day-to-day with the interns in the program, and he told WTMJ the differences he sees in the interns from day one of the program compared to the end.
[At the beginning of the year], they are extremely shy. They’re quiet. Their confidence levels are extremely low. They have trouble speaking up,” he said. “By the end of the year, they are completely different people. They have gained independence. They’ve gained self-advocacy. They’ve learned to speak up and know what they want and need.”
He said that growth extends back to their home lives as well.
“[We even] hear from the parents… that the way they are at home has changed over time,” he said. “It’s really fun to watch the students become completely brand new people at the end of Project SEARCH.”
State Senator Chris Larson told WTMJ he enjoyed interacting with all the different Project SEARCH interns and seeing what they do on a daily basis. He said he would like for this program to be expanded to all types of high school students in the future.
State Senator Chris Larson believes the Project SEARCH program should be extended to all types of high school students in the state to give them real world experiences before graduation@620wtmj pic.twitter.com/uQLW3VnQzQ
— Julien Johnson (@jujuelz_is) April 22, 2024
“To be able to demonstrate what a work environement is like… showing up to work on time, working with a group, getting along, handling the in-work politics, whether they want to or not,” he said. “Honestly, we don’t teach that enough as much as we should within schools, so that would be ideal to have something like that.”
He said this would be something that would be great for everybody involved.
“Give them a taste of what the real world is like,” he said. “…mixed in with their studies as an option.”
Since 2010m, almost 44,000 have participated in the Project SEARCH program, and among the 2021-22 program participants, over 73% were employed within nine months of graduation.
