Finding a job can be challenging for high school graduates without work experience. But it can be even harder for students with special needs such as Miguel Angel Alonso Flores.
Flores, a Socorro High School graduate, needed help transitioning from school to the workforce. With support from the Socorro Independent School District’s Project Search, Flores is developing the life skills and on-the-job training he needs to enter the job market.
“It’s a program that helps us get stronger, become more independent,” Flores said. “It’s a program that helps us become more responsible (for) ourselves.”
Project Search is an international program that prepares adult students with disabilities for competitive and integrated employment.
Established in SISD in 2019, Project Search collaborates with The Hospitals of Providence East Campus to provide students like Flores with yearlong internships so they can acquire competitive, transferable, and marketable skills. Students also gain independence, confidence, self-esteem, and maturity.
Since August, Flores has interned in the hospital’s laundry, and shipping and receiving departments. He looked forward to impressing prospective employers with his new job and social skills at the second annual Coffee Connections in February. This once-a-year job networking opportunity connected Project Search interns with inclusive employers.
During the networking event, potential employers met with Flores and seven other Project Search interns over pastries and coffee at the El Paso Community Foundation. Interns showcased their skills and confidence while talking about themselves and the program.
“Our inaugural event of Coffee Connections with Project Search was a huge success that helped us reach a 100% employment outcome for all of our interns last year,” said Monica Gasca, SISD Project Search instructor. “Several inclusive employers joined us to learn about our program, met our interns, and therefore expressed interest in providing an opportunity for employment.”
According to Gasca, all 10 interns who participated in the 2022 event found jobs, including Aidan Gardea. Since last year, Gardea has been employed as a document destroyer at Goodwill Industries of El Paso Inc.
Gardea said he enjoys his job, which includes shredding confidential documents and sorting papers. He always makes sure to listen intently and follow his employer’s instructions.
“Coffee Connections helped me be present so that I could connect with an employer,” Gardea said.
Project Search interns participate in three rotations in various hospital areas, including the information desk, oncology, surgery, central supply, cafeteria, gift shop, and laundry area, to explore different career paths. Most importantly, they develop transferrable skills that can be applied to jobs outside the hospital.
Montwood High School graduate Isaac Jaramillo has completed two rotations in the hospital’s cardiac rehabilitation and telemetry departments. He said he looked forward to meeting potential employers and finding a job.
“I’m excited!” Jaramillo said about Coffee Connections’ networking opportunities. “I like seeing people around and talking to them.”
Coffee Connections is one of several events hosted by Project Search designed to promote the program's ultimate goal: to help students gain competitive employment.
“By participating in Project Search, they’re gaining the needed experience, so by the time they are employed, we expect competitive employment as any other employee would obtain,” Gasca said.
The Hospitals of Providence East Campus was the first employer to hire an intern from the Project Search program in 2021. The hospital's Transmountain campus hired a Project Search intern in 2022.
Tasha Hopper, chief executive officer of the Hospitals of Providence East Campus said Project Search not only makes the interns' lives better, but the program also helps improve the lives of their family members.
"It really just goes to being what this hospital is about," Hopper said. "We're a part of the health care community. And inside that community is every different type of person, and so it's nice to give an opportunity to someone that may not of had an opportunity at a different time."
Project Search has successfully helped 100% of the interns in the last two cohorts find jobs, which is above the national employment average for individuals with disabilities, Gasca said.
“The national average for employment of individuals with disabilities is below 20%; however, 100% of the two previous SISD Project Search cohorts have obtained employment,” Gasca said. “That is a vast difference and the epitome of what SISD has to offer- opportunity and making a difference!”
Project Search is one of three transition programs SISD offers students with disabilities. The others are the Community Access Program (CAP) and the Vocational Access Class (VAC).
Other Project Search community partners include Workforce Solutions Borderplex, Emergence Health Network, and Empowering Hands, an employment service agency.
Second annual Coffee Connections event photos
Published March 14, 2023
Strategic Direction: College and Career Readiness