Eight Blount County students graduate from Project SEARCH

BLOUNT CO., Tenn. (WVLT) - Project SEARCH is a nationwide organization but planted its roots in East Tennessee eight years ago. It’s devoted to helping students with intellectual and developmental disabilities transition from being high school students to working jobs in the real world.

On Thursday, eight members of the 2022-2023 class got to celebrate their hard work with a special ceremony at the East Maryville Baptist Church in Blount County.

The students all walked across the stage and graduated from the program.

Project SEARCH interns spend five days per week for nine months at the hospital immersed in coursework and rotating between three different job specialties. Each day, interns receive at least one hour of classroom instruction on vocational, social, and independent living skills.

Tammy Hearon, a Project SEARCH Instructor, has been with the program since it’s been in Blount County Schools.

For eight years she’s devoted her time to teaching and helping the students gain confidence and get jobs.

She said for these eight students, “it’s only the beginning.”

Project SEARCH works with various community partnerships for the students to be able to work in. Some of those include working at Maryville College, Blount Memorial Hospital, Hilton Hotels, and much more.

“I call this group the awesome eight because they are absolutely wonderful interns. I don’t know if we would’ve been able to expand our internship sites if these interns had not been so skilled,” said Hearon.

Anyone from ages 18-21 can join Blount County Schools Project SEARCH. In Knoxville’s Project SEARCH the age rage is different.

Hearon said there has been 43 total interns since the beginning, 40 of those people still hold the same exact job that they got when they graduated.

“We look at it like if this is our last year with our interns and so we try to provide services and things that they need to be successful in the future and so having a job is one of the first steps,” she said.

Jenna Otano and Micah Collins both graduated and are moving on to their full time jobs. They both said there favorite part of the program was the classes and working at the Hilton Hotel at the McGhee Tyson Airport, specifically helping set up for their banquets. The two said they believe they were more than ready to take on the real world because of what they learned at project SEARCH.

“It’s going to help you get through life and survive in the world because its hard,” said Otano and Collins.

For more information on Project SEARCH and how to get involved you can contact Blount County School systems.