The Cowan Community Center in Letcher County has been providing opportunities for local youth for more than 50 years. Their focus has been on week-long camps: Arts on the Creek, Kids on the Creek, Farm on the Creek Camp and Headwaters on the Creek Camp. However, as of this year, they are offering a new 10-week program for high school youth: Interns on the Creek.
The paid internship hires high school students to work in a variety of community-based projects according to their interests. This year’s group of interns includes 15 students – three from Jenkins Middle High School and 12 from Letcher County Central High School.
To encourage students to apply, Program Coordinator Rachel Sexton visited local high schools to explain the program.
“We were looking for students who wished to make a difference in their community,” Sexton said.
In the first day of their internship, participants gathered at Cowan Community Center for orientation and a three-day “AIR Shift” workshop where they came up with ideas to potentially implement within the community this summer.
The workshop was facilitated by local leaders and the AIR Institute at Berea College, and it led small groups of the students through exercises, and challenged them to collaborate and think differently about art, business and the economy. Over the three-day camp, they worked on business plans (including marketing, scheduling, budgeting, etc.), did a run through presentation of their ideas, and presented their ideas to a panel of judges comprised of local community leaders.
The groups came up with three final ideas:
- Build a giant scrabble board on the lawn at the town’s outdoor music stage, where the summer Levitt Amp series takes place
- Host a cooking competition in Whitesburg
- Organize a parade of decorated off-road vehicles
Instead of choosing one project, the panel awarded $1,000 to all of the students, and let them self-select how much money would go to each project.
In addition to working on their projects, the teens are completing job-shadowing at CANE Kitchen, facilitating healthy lifestyle booths at the Letcher County Farmers Market, and assisting with the Levitt Amp concert series.
“These have been some of the happiest moments of my life,” said Kaleb Gibson, one of the students shadowing at CANE Kitchen. “For a kid that has grown up since 5 wanting to go to culinary school – to get experience in commercial kitchen – that’s mind blowing.”
He now has his ServSafe Food Protection Manager Certification as a result of the experience. Next week, he is planning to make his famous shrimp stir fry recipe for the CANE staff, and hopes to use it at one of the kitchen’s next catering jobs.
Several of the teens have already completed their required 120 volunteer hours, but are still showing up to engage with the projects.
“Each week they fill out reflections, and the growth in the group has been incredible,” Sexton said. “They are working with the mayor, teachers and other community leaders, as well as community members, with such maturity and care.”
Sexton is posting the journeys of the interns throughout the summer on the Cowan Creek Community Center Facebook page. Follow along here!
The Cowan Community Action Group coordinates Cowan Creek Mountain Music School, Levitt Amp, Grow Appalachia, the Kids Kafe (a food service program for local youth), and more. Providing these opportunities to encourage youth action is critical to forming Appalachia’s New Day.
The internship is funded by the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education’s GEAR UP program; the AIR Shift workshop was funded by MACED.
About: Appalachia’s New Day is a new storytelling effort offered by MACED to eastern Kentucky communities. We can work with you to help identify, shape and amplify stories about businesses, programs and initiatives in your community that are helping build a new economy in eastern Kentucky. Read more stories here. Contact us or sign up here if you would like more details.
