Copyright © 2006 NLThomas
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News from the Cherokee Nation, OK
Copyright © 2006 CNO
TAHLEQUAH, OKLAHOMA – Larry D. Ketcher, Cherokee Nation Director of Employment and Training, rewards, presents Melissa Butler with the Overall Outstanding Participant Award in this summer’s Student Youth Employment Program. Melissa, a 2006 graduate of Tahlequah High School, spent the summer working at W.W. Hastings Indian Hospital. As a result of her positive work experience, she is now planning a career in health care.
"Larry D. Ketcher and Melissa Butler" 
If the success of a program is judged by the number of awards given to its participants, then this summer’s Cherokee Nation’s Supplemental Youth Employment Program (SYEP) was a roaring success. At an awards luncheon held Friday, July 28, at the tribal complex to mark the end of this year’s program, 13 participants received plaques from Cherokee Nation Career Services officials, who sponsored the program, and three of the 13 received a second honor as well.
“We want to create and help students achieve high expectations,” said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith. “We want to create in them the awareness that they can learn to support their families and help rebuild the Cherokee Nation through what they learn in this program this summer.”
The SYEP program, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, helps low-income Cherokee youths ages 14 to 21 to begin early to acquire the skills and training they need to find positive full-time jobs. This summer, participants worked 40 hours a week for minimum wage for approximately eight to nine weeks and developed decision-making and leadership skills during their internships.
Cherokee Nation Program Manager of Employment and Training Barbara Worley said most of this year’s students have learned how a real job would be for them, adding that the participants actually start their professional careers in this program.
“This program brings a lot of participants out of their shells, and most are really glad not just for the job experience but for the extra money the job brings in because it helps them buy school clothes,” Worley said.
Program officials try to fit students’ specific future career goals to the jobs in which they are placed. In previous years, applicants have been placed in both public- and private-sector jobs. Among the businesses that participants worked in this year were the Sam Hider Clinic in Jay; the Cherokee Nation Natural Resources Department, Health Department and Career Services Adult Education Literacy Center; the W.W. Hastings Indian Hospital; the Grand Lake Family YMCA in Grove; and Adair Computers in Stilwell. More than 100 businesses participated in this year’s program.
“We are very thankful for our many excellent job sites and are grateful that employers take the time to help our kids,” Worley said.
Receiving awards as this summer’s Outstanding Basic Skills students were Ray Pettit and Cheyenna Randolph, of Adair County. Basic Skills classes, which target 14- and 15-year-olds, teach participants the fundamentals of math, reading, money management as well as basic rules of job etiquette. Participants in these classes were also required to complete a community project.
Winners of awards as Outstanding Participants from the Cherokee Nation’s Northern Area were Brent Tyler Baker and Candace Williams. The Northern Area comprises all of Craig, Delaware, Mayes, Nowata and Rogers counties and parts of Tulsa and Washington counties. Winning the awards as Outstanding Participants from the Nation’s Southern Area were Chris Doublehead and Tyann Cato. The Southern Area comprises all of Adair, Cherokee, McIntosh, Muskogee, Sequoyah and Wagoner counties.
Overall Outstanding Participant was Melissa Butler, an 18-year-old, 2006 Tahlequah High School graduate. Butler’s Cherokee Nation counselor was Kathleen Brown.
“I wanted to get experience in the health care field and couldn’t do it alone—I needed help,” Butler said. “The most valuable thing I’ve learned is that I take responsibility more seriously. I definitely want to stay in the health care field after this summer.”
Student Leadership Award recipients were Rebecca Panther, Ryan Doyeto and Shawn Lochner.
In the Cherokee Nation Northern Area, this year’s Outstanding Job Sites were the Grand Lake Family YMCA in Grove in Delaware County and Adair Computers in Stilwell, Adair County, in the Southern Area. Named Outstanding Supervisors in the Northern Area were Michael Welch of Oaks Indian Mission and Caroline Weaver, Delaware County Court Clerk. Outstanding Supervisors in the Southern Area were Scottie Adair of Adair Computers in Adair County and Martha Force of W. W. Hastings Indian Hospital in Tahlequah, Cherokee County.
In other awards, three participants, Ray Pettit, Cheyenna Randolph and Natosha Jones, were chosen to spend two weeks in August in Appleton, Wisconsin, attending the National Indian Youth Police Academy (www.niypa.com) from August 6 to 19. These three students will join only 60 students nationally in attending the police academy, which this year will be held at the Fox Valley Technical College Police Academy. The Cherokee Nation students applied for these very competitive positions under the direction of Lieutenant Franky Dreadfulwater of the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service.
“This academy is very competitive, and it’s an honor to be chosen. Several other Oklahoma tribes will be sending students to the academy, so we will be in good company,” said Dreadfulwater. “The Cherokee Nation Marshal Service wants to recruit people from our Cherokee communities to interest them in police work, and this academy may be the thing that sends them to school and may help steer them in the direction of police work.”
All student expenses will be paid for by the academy.
Guest speakers at the banquet included Larry D. Ketcher, director, Employment and Training at Cherokee Nation; S. Diane Kelley, group leader of Career Services; Charles Tucker, program specialist, Employment and Training; and Lisa Trice-Turtle, of the Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation and a previous SYEP youth intern, who gave the keynote address.
For additional information about the Cherokee Nation Summer Youth Employment Program, call Barbara Worley, phone: 918-453-5386 or Cherokee Nation Career Services, phone: 918-453-5555.
Related path(s):
| Related Cherokee Nation contact information: |
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Mike Miller, Cherokee Nation Director of Communications Phone: 918-456-0671 (ext.2210) Fax: 918-458-5580 E-mail: Communications@cherokee.org
Larry Daugherty, Advertising Manager |
Steven Swogger, Agriculture Liaison Natural Resources Department Phone: 918-456-0671 (ext.2546) FAX: 918-458-7673 E-mail: sswogger@cherokee.org
Bradley D. Peak, Cherokee Nation |
