From The Classroom To The Office

The bridge from the classroom to the workforce can feel like navigating through a dense fog for high school students preparing for life after graduation.

The solution? Innovative steps are being taken to build a bridge between local businesses and LaRue County High School (LCHS) students to make the transition clearer.

Phelps Heating & Cooling, a long-time LaRue County business located on West Main street in Hodgenville, has partnered with LCHS in bringing on senior Ryan Brooke Puckett in a Co-Op program. The design is to help build her skills in a work environment before graduating this Spring. Puckett says the experience has been invaluable, “My responsibilities center around the office and administrative work such as filing paperwork, answering the phones, and interacting with customers. Working here has equipped me with people skills and helped me develop the traits I need for working in office/team environments for whatever I might do in the future.”

Sara Phelps, Office Manager at Phelps Heating & Cooling, had a beneficial experience with Co-Op when she was a student at LCHS and wanted to participate in continuing the investment in the next generation, “For me, as an alumni of LCHS, the co-op program gave me work experience that benefited me later in life. You can teach kids a lot from a book and what they learn in the classroom, but this is a great addition allowing them to apply that knowledge in working with people in life after high school. Simply put, this is a great opportunity for our LaRue County High School students.”

Students at LCHS Co-Op at over 12 different locations throughout the county, learning from local businesses the skills they will need upon graduation. For Phelps, this as an integral part of preparing those students for life after high school, “It’s important to us to involve local kids in our business because it helps them learn and practice characteristics that they’ll need no matter the field of work they go into after graduating. In the case of Ryan Brooke, she is getting real-life experience out in the public learning customer service skills. It helps the kids who are involved to see what they want to do or what they don’t want to do before they graduate high school and commit to a path.”

*Local businesses that would like to participate in the Co-Op program can contact Tara Wooden, LaRue County Schools Instructional Supervisor, at (270) 358-4111 or at tara.wooden@larue.kyschools.us