Expect the hallways to be much emptier now that a majority of the senior class will be attending WBL during the school day. Work Based Learning is a senior program for May and June. On May 17, seniors will disperse to a variety of non-profit working sites where they can gain unpaid work experience, and not attend school. 

There are opportunities for job shadowing, unpaid internships, service learning, volunteering, and teaching mentorship. Students must be supervised and guided by a mentor in their chosen field of study. Each mentor can only work with one student. Students must attend for six hours a day, not including lunch.  

One senior for example, Zoe Zwecher, will give back to her community by attending her old school. She will be working under the principal of the French American Academy in Englewood. It is a K-5 French immersion school.

Like many other student’s chosen locations, she says she picked this site because it is where she attended school growing up. 

She wants to, “give back to the school that raised me. I will help the principal organize schedules, events, and help teachers around the school.”

Students will not be permitted to do WBL and must remain in classes during the school day if they have more than 10 tardies or 10 unexcused absences or outstanding tardy detentions. Students also have to earn a passing grade in all courses for each marking period and a C- or higher for the fourth marking period in order to be eligible for the program. 

There are many locations suggested when seniors apply to WBL such as senior citizen homes, hospitals, and religious organizations. But, the more popular sites are Haworth Swim Club, Tenakill Middle School, Demarest Middle School, Haworth Public School, Lindgren, and the County Road School. 

While they may get to “skip class” for the last few weeks of school, seniors will still have weekly assignments of journal entries about what they participated in or special situations they experienced that week.