8 Project SEARCH students celebrate graduation and new jobs Monday

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - A group of College Station ISD students spent the past nine months working inside the Baylor Scott and White College Station hospital. The eight graduates are part of Project SEARCH, working to assist people living with disabilities as they transition to adulthood.

Hospital staff, friends and family gathered Monday for a ceremony to honor the graduates and celebrate their next steps.

Kenyatta Davis is a Project SEARCH graduate who will get to stay with his new coworkers.

“I’ve changed so much and it was all because of the people that I worked with,” he said.

Davis started working in the kitchen at the hospital. He has been hire to help in the kitchen line and deliver food to patients. While he has grown to love the gig, Davis said he started out pretty nervous.

“When I first got there I I felt overwhelmed because there was a lot of places and I am not good with directions. So, I followed a lot of people so that way I can better understand where certain things are in certain places and after I got the hang of it, after I followed a few people, I started going on my own without having people to follow,” he said.

Beth Sherry, the Project SEARCH instructor based at BSW, said this is exactly why the hospital was such a good fit for the district program.

“I truly don’t think that we could have a better location to have this program because every single person here just has the biggest heart and they are so kind,” she said. “When the interns are coming back, and their coworkers are coming back, and talking about how well they get along and how good those relationships are, it really just kind of drives home that we are doing what we should be doing and that it’s working.”

Project SEARCH is looking for other businesses in the area to give feedback on hiring people with disabilities. This includes information on barriers for those hesitant to hire people with disabilities and positive feedback from those who already employ people with disabilities.

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