Four High Road School students are off to a prosperous start to their school year. In September, they all were hired as unlicensed event staff members with the largest event staff company in North America. Under the guidance of Mr. Demby, Transition Specialist, the students filled out the online application, partook in an interview and successfully completed a 4-hour training session. As luck would have it, their first event was ushering at the Eagles versus Colts game!Deshanta Williams, 11th grader, described her first day as exciting. “At first it was hard getting comfortable enough to tell fans what to do. Like, they can’t smoke and they have to sit in their own seat,” Deshanta said. “It was fun meeting a lot of new people though.”
Mr. Demby is driven to help obtain jobs for all our students who are of working age. He believes jobs are key to teaching students real-world skills such as working with the public and coexisting as part of a staff. In addition, jobs give students exposure to fields they may hope to enter as adults. A job answering phones, running errands, or performing administrative tasks enables students to understand how fields they’re interested in work day-to-day and what those careers demand in terms of education, skill, and time commitment. If students wish to work in the summer, Mr. Demby aids with that as well. With his assistance, many students have gotten summer work through Philadelphia Youth Network’s Summer Work Ready program.
