COLUMBUS - Columbus Community Hospital staff members said teary-eyed goodbyes to another group of graduates from their Project Search program.
The program allows students, in their final year of high school, to learn work place skills, as well as learn how to perform certain tasks at the hospital.
Melinda Allen was one of the leaders of this years program, and said it's bittersweet saying goodbye to this year's group.
"This experience has been really wonderful. It's been exciting to see these youth as they come into the program, thoroughly apprehensive and they don't know what to expect, but throughout the process they really teach you to open up. To be accepting of new things and just have excitement for life," says Allen.
The project graduates included Brianna Brockhaus, Gabby Diaz-Rodriguez, Kendra Kresha, Kara Reisdorff, Jake Reisdorff, and Carrie McDonald. All six plan to go on and use the skills they learned over the past year, to get new jobs.
Brockhaus says she would like to continue working in a medical facility.
"I'm going to go to region 5. [What do you want to do there?] Find a job in either volunteer in housekeeping or volunteer at the hospital in skilled nursing," says Brockhaus.
Graduates from this years class were from the communities of David City, Osceola, and Columbus.
Project Search Students Graduate From Program on Thursday
