By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

Tabor College’s Project SEARCH has six interns, earning workplace experience needed to help them find a full-time job.

Hillsboro resident Abi Funk works in Tabor College’s JayShop, which allows her to work with money and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, she said.

While those skills could be honed in a classroom, working in the shop is preferable because it allows her to learn people skills, Funk said.

“I’m a social butterfly, so I can really mingle with other people, she said. “It was perfect for me.”

Project SEARCH is a national program that offers students a year’s worth of experience along with learning in the classroom.

Tabor’s program is still new, with three participants last year, and twice as many this year. It is unique because it’s exclusive to those who graduated high school in the past few years.

Brock Mitchell said SEARCH gave him immediate results. After finishing his internship in December, he was hired as a custodian at Tabor soon after.

His primary focus isn’t maintenance, but getting to mow is his favorite task, Mitchell said.

“I like mowing because I get to be outside,” he said. “You just have to stare at the left wheel and make sure it’s lined up. The music makes it go by faster.”

In addition to working maintenance as an intern, he spent 10 weeks in the dining hall, Mitchell said.

“It really helped a lot,” he said. “We did a lot of measuring and cutting.”

While he is no longer an intern, Mitchell said he likes that he can still see his classmates.

“I help them out a lot,” he said. “I work with one of them, and I teach him quite a bit.”

In addition to being familiar with the campus, Mitchell said working at Tabor is convenient because he lives at Marion County Lake.

Working in the JayShop is good experience because it provides a consistent routine, Ryan Ronsse said.

“It’s fun for me,” he said.

Ronsse is a recent McPherson High School graduate, and he said he likes seeing friends at work

“I have to always be nice because I interact with customers a lot,” he said.

He also needs to keep T-shirts folded and the store clean.

Ronsse, who applied for a job at Dillon’s in McPherson says, the internship taught him how to handle different situations at work, he said.

“It taught me not to get nervous doing my job,” he said.