Charlie'ann Aldrich, a Class of 2025 graduate of Southeast Bulloch High School (SEBHS), is the Georgia Association for Career and Technical Education's (GACTE) Southeast Region Work-Based Learning Student of the Year.
GACTE made the announcement on June 18, in Athens, during its annual summer conference. She was one of the top-five students recognized in the state, and she received a $250 scholarship with the award.
Aldrich was nominated by SEBHS's Work-Based Learning coordinator, Renee Rogers.
“Charlie’ann is an exceptional student,” said Rogers. “She completed the Therapeutic Services - Allied Health career pathway, and she is a true example of how our program can help students.”
After completing the career pathway, Aldrich also completed its clinical rotation, a partnership with East Georgia Regional Medical Center. From this experience, she was recommended by her Allied Health teacher, Elizabeth Hartley, to be placed at a Work-Based Learning site at a doctor’s office. This led to her being employed as an office assistant by East Georgia Women's Center.
“We have been very grateful for having her (Aldrich) as our Work-Based Learning student,” said Ginger DeLoach, of East Georgia Women’s Center, in a letter of recommendation she provided as part of Aldrich’s nomination. “Thank you for allowing our office to have the opportunity to share our endorsement of Charlie’ann Aldrich. She shows great quality in wanting to learn and retains information very well to complete her tasks.”
Aldrich is extremely grateful to have been a part of the Work-Based Learning program. “Without this program I would've never found something that interests me so much. At 18 years old I am working in a field that I can really see myself doing.”
She plans to attend Ogeechee Technical College in the fall and major in sonography with the goal of being an ultrasound technician in an obstetrics and gynecology practice.
“Thanks to Work-Based Learning, my job allowed me to shadow and go around the (medical) office to see how everyone works. I just fell in love with watching how happy people got when they would walk out of the ultrasound room with a picture of their baby. This is the main reason why I plan to go into this line of work. I would've never been able to have this experience if it wasn’t for Work-Based Learning.”
Work-based learning is a career pathway within Bulloch County Schools' College & Career Program. It is the #1 career pathway selection of the school district's 35 career pathways.
Last year 340 of Bulloch County Schools’ high school students participated in Work-Based Learning, and they were employed by 285 approved local and area business and industry sites. The students not only learned valuable workplace skills, but they clocked a total of 166,301 hours of work and earned more than $1,711,263 in wages. This demonstrates that the school district is not only preparing a future workforce, students are a key part of the local workforce and its economy.