As students enter high school and start getting closer to graduation, there are a limitless number of choices of what to do next.

It can be an exciting time or a frustrating time depending on the tools available to students to figure things out.

Monessen High School and PennWest California have partnered with Beyond Grad, an RK Mellon Foundation grant-funded program that aims to empower students not only to develop their plans for after high school, but to take their first steps on that path. The Rev. Robert Holmes, president of Monessen Communities That Care, Jessica Anderson, vice president of MCTC, and Dr. Mathilda Spencer, also of MCTC, have teamed up to staff the Beyond Grad program.

Spencer, associate professor of criminal justice, master program coordinator-forensic linguistics at PennWest California is the Beyond Grad grant manager, Holmes is the student engagement coordinator and Jessica Anderson of SPHS is a student counselor. Holmes said Marlon Wheeler, who used to be dean of students at Monessen High School, has signed on to be a student counselor.

The idea for Beyond Grad was born of the most recent Pennsylvania Youth Survey results, which showed that as students in the state advance from sixth through 12th grades, they go from thinking school and learning is important to thinking it’s not quite that important.

MONESSEN • A2 FROM A1 Holmes said in Westmore-land County, students were asked if they felt school would be important later on in life. In sixth grade, 69% said yes. In 12th grade 19% said yes.

“They’re dropping off between sixth and 12th grades,” Holmes said. “They don’t engage. Something goes wrong in high school.”

Monessen Communities That Care has a five-phase process and the fifth phase is implementation, Holmes said. The organization was talking to former high school principal Eric Manko about some low grade-point averages, and Spencer and Holmes started discussing a mentoring program that Holmes developed in the 1980s and whether it could help today.

Beyond Grad was developed as a result of those conversations.

Holmes said 30 students have already signed up, and that’s happened even before this Tuesday’s information session at 8:45 a.m. at the high school, which is open to parents and students.

Those 30 students have been signed up thanks to the efforts of the Beyond Grad staff and Holmes’ engagement activities.

This summer’s Get Fired Up event at Monessen Family Center with Charlie Batch gave Communities That Care a great opportunity to meet some students. Holmes also attended some football practices to talk to some kids.

“We’ve been doing some recruiting and personal calls as well,” Holmes said.

He said Jason Minniti, the new high school principal, has been making daily announcements to let the students know about the event Tuesday and how they can get involved.

Holmes said it looks like the program will run during eighth and ninth periods. So far, the majority of students who have signed up are freshmen. The plan is to take all the students who enroll and find out what they are thinking about their post-high school life.

If they’re considering post-secondary education, they will end up in one group. If they’re thinking about going straight into the workforce, they’ll go into a different group.

“This is a pilot program and we’re building the plane as we go and we have to fly,” Holmes said.

If the kids don’t have a plan, that’s entirely OK. There is a curriculum that is a career readiness guide and will help students identify an area of study or go through the world of work study.

“These curriculums that will help them identify who they are and offer some opportunities,” Holmes said.

Beyond Grad has identified myriad ways that students can approach both academic paths and the workforce. For example, Holmes points to the Inflation Reduction Act and said a lot of employers can receive up to $40,000 for each new worker they train. His thought is that students can specifically seek those employers out to receive training in a certain field and gain experience.

Beyond Grad has a number of field trips planned for the upcoming year. In November, a trip is planned to Harrisburg to visit the Department of Environmental Protection.

A trip to visit PennWest California is planned so students can tour the campus and learn more about what they offer. They’ll meet with Eric Tarpley, assistant director of diversity, equity and inclusion and a recruitment specialist at the university.

A trip is also planned to Manchester Bidwell Training Center in Pittsburgh, which offers training in the theater and other things that aren’t necessarily in the vein of traditional career and technical centers.

“It’s a nice variety of things for those who want to be trained in other things,” Holmes said. “We’ll guide this program based on the areas that the students choose. It will follow what they need.” They plan to ask the students what they want to see in the program. Holmes said it’s imperative to make the program interesting and fun to keep the kids engaged – and student engagement isn’t just his job title, it’s his main goal.

“This program is theirs,” Holmes said. “The work force is open and the governor is loosening the requirements for a lot of jobs (removing the requirement of a bachelor’s degree, for example). A lot of employers are following.”

Not all jobs need a degree, Holmes said. And a lot of places offer on-the-job training.

“My job is to encourage,” he said. “In ‘Star Trek,’ they say, ‘Engage!’ I want to encourage them to engage! I want them to realize they can dream big and the doors of opportunity are swinging wide open for them.”

Beyond Grad staffers understand they have a lot less time with this year’s seniors, so they intend to spend a lot of time with them and focus on getting them what they need to either formulate a plan or to take the steps they need to succeed in their plans.

“At the end of the day, we want to change some statistics about post-secondary education,” he said. “We’re changing the number of students who graduate and changing the economy for the city and the students in the future.

“We’re spending a lot of time letting them know they’re important to their immediate family and also their community. They can be part of building up our thriving community. There will be a lot of encouragement to do just that.”

He plans to spend a decent amount of time working with parents as well. It’s important to make sure everyone involved in the student’s life is on the same page about the program and what it’s meant to do.

Holmes said he’s thankful to Superintendent Dr. Robert Motte, Manko, Minniti and the district’s guidance counselors and teachers.

“I’m hoping we work as a team in this collaboration. I’m there to support what they do and together we make them better students and better adults in life and improvements all around.”

Any student or parent who is interested in learning more about the program, or who can’t make Tuesday morning’s information session at the high school, can call Holmes at 724-797-394 or email him at revholmes@hot-mail.com.