WVU Medicine Project SEARCH recruiting interns

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –The international Project SEARCH program at WVU Medicine J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital is recruiting high school students with disabilities from Monongalia, Marion, Taylor, and Preston counties to be part of its 2022 class. Ruby Memorial Hospital serves as a Project SEARCH host business, one of 620 sites across 47 states and 10 countries. 

“We are excited to meet our next class of interns and watch them grow as they gain new skills that will help make them more marketable in the workforce,” Colleen Sybert, WVU Medicine associate vice president of Human Resources, said. “We are graduating our first class of interns at the end of the month, and it has been a privilege to watch them grow and find areas where they can truly shine.”

Project SEARCH interns rotate through job roles in several departments within the host business learning real-world job skills. The Project SEARCH model involves an extensive period of training and career exploration, innovation adaptations, long-term job coaching, and continuous feedback from teachers, job coaches, and employers. 

Skills such as assembly, clerical duties, courier services, sterilization, stocking, transportation, and environmental skills are taught through different host departments. As a result, student interns with disabilities can become employed in nontraditional, complex, and rewarding jobs at the completion of the training program.

Applicants must:

• Be 18-to-21 years old 
• Be in their last year of high school 
• Be eligible for Vocational Rehabilitation and long-term services
• Be able to practice appropriate hygiene, social, and communication skills
• Have the ability to take direction and follow work rules 
• Have access to public transportation
• Pass health screen, drug screen, and background check 
• Have a desire to work in the community at end of Project SEARCH

For the 2018-2019 school year, 75.2 percent of participants in Project SEARCH programs were employed upon completion of the program, 65.2 percent of those employed held jobs that were at least 16 hours per week, paid prevailing wage, were non-seasonal, and in an integrated work setting that includes coworkers with and without disabilities.
 
The Project SEARCH program at WVU Medicine is accepting applications for its 2022 class through May 18. Students must pass a skills assessment evaluation and be interviewed as part of the acceptance process. Once accepted into the program, student interns report to Ruby Memorial instead of their home school district classroom for the entire school year. Student interns will rotate through a number of job roles and departments at the Hospital. The Project SEARCH Program serves as the student interns’ capstone educational experience and often leads to employment once the internships are complete.

Students with disabilities who are interested in becoming a student intern through Project SEARCH should contact Whitney Hatcher, manager of Volunteer Services and Project SEARCH business liaison, at whitney.hatcher@wvumedicine.org or their guidance counselor.

Learn about the 2021 WVU Medicine Project SEARCH class members and their experiences here.