Press Date: 03/17/2010

Dublin Methodist Hospital

Tolles students learn employment skills

Wednesday, March 17, 2010
By JENNIFER NOBLIT

ThisWeek Staff Writer

Nine students with disabilities have been spending their senior year of high school working at Dublin Methodist Hospital, receiving training they hope will lead to employment after graduation in May.

The students, who live in Dublin and Hilliard and attend Tolles Career and Technical Center in Plain City, make up the school's first class of a program called Project Search.

The one-year program, which started at the hospital in the fall and coincides with the school year at Tolles, is designed to help the students with their transition to the working world. The students in the program have physical and developmental disabilities.

"The entire program is focused on competitive employment," said instructor Kelley Kobashigawa, who has noticed other benefits.

The students have become friends and have made quite an impression on hospital staff with their positive attitude, Kobashigawa said.

"I hear all the time from hospital associates that they really notice and miss it when the interns aren't around," she said last week as the nine students, wearing uniforms of blue shirts and black pants, joked with each other during their 30-minute lunch break.

Nathan Burt, administrative fellow at the hospital, echoed Kobashigawa's sentiments.

"It's really contributed to the culture of the hospital," he said. "It's hard to have a bad day after you work or interact with the interns."

While the interns contribute daily to Dublin Methodist Hospital, Burt said there are several reasons Project Search was chosen.

"First and foremost Dublin Methodist is committed to serving the neighborhood and Project Search is a great way to do that," he said. "The relationship is mutually beneficial: the hospital gets workers and the interns get experience."

Tolles Career and Technical Center serves students from the Dublin, Fairbanks, Hilliard, Jonathan Alder, London, Madison Plains and West Jefferson school districts. The school offers instruction in subjects such as culinary arts, sports medicine and computer networking.

The Project Search interns work in "very structured and systematic" jobs around Dublin Methodist Hospital that range from stocking nurses' carts and working in the cafeteria to greeting guests and looking for expired items in the hospital's supplies, Kobashigawa said. The students get three 10- to 12-week job rotations during the course of the year.

Two job coaches work with the interns, training them and checking up on them when training is finished.

"They don't fade out until (the intern) feels comfortable," Kobashigawa said.

But the day isn't entirely about working around the hospital. From 8 to 9 a.m., Kobashigawa teaches the students in a classroom at the hospital about how to get and keep a job.

"It's not the typical classroom. We focus on job skills: how to get a job, keeping a job, shaking hands, making eye contact," she said. "Right now we're working on interview skills."

The program also throws students a few curveballs, Kobashigawa said. The first internship at the hospital is a job the students feel comfortable with, but the second shakes things up.

"In the second rotation we like to take them out of their comfort zone a bit," she said. "It opens up a whole new world for them. The third rotation is more toward their job goal."

Tolles' program is new to central Ohio, Kobashigawa said, but has been used elsewhere in the U.S. for 15 years.

"Ohio has grown so much just in the past few years," Kobashigawa said. "Next year it will be at the OSU Medical Center."

For the students who are involved, the program has meant more than job skills. They've enjoyed new experiences and developed friendships with their fellow hospital interns.

Andy Talnagi, of Dublin, said he's learned a lot about stocking soda in the coolers and also has made friends.

"Andy's extremely popular around the hospital," Kobashigawa said. "We call Andy a jack of all trades because people always request him."

Lara Crumb, of Dublin, said she's met fun and funny people working in the food and nutrition department. She's also developed friendships with the other students, whom she plans on staying in contact with.

Hilliard resident Mandy Woitovich said her time with Project Search has shown her that she wants to get a job at a nursing home or in a school cafeteria, if she can't get a job at Dublin Methodist Hospital.

"We love it here," she said.