WCSD has been working closely with Why Not You Academy (WNYA), a single-site charter high school located in Des Moines, WA, from their founding in 2021 when we delivered phase I of their current charter school facility.
One of the highlights of our partnership has been to connect with their high school students through WNYA’s Leaving to Learn Program. The program focuses on providing access to experiences, resources, relationships, and opportunity through informational interviews, job shadowing, internships, and more. My colleagues and I at WCSD and PCSD have participated in many informational interviews over the last year. Students have spoken with regional directors, project managers/directors, finance directors, our general counsel, and our fundraising director all in an effort to learn more about various job types and gain experience in scheduling, interviewing, and networking. Most recently, the WCSD team had the opportunity to provide a job shadow day for one of their students, Amaar H., a 10th grader.
Amaar joined us on a site visit to Impact Public Schools Black River Elementary School (Impact | BRE) in Renton, WA. This is the fourth school for this charter school network which stretches from Seattle to Tacoma. Construction began on the TK-5 facility in mid-October. The school is set to open in August 2023 starting with 253 TK-1 graders and will grow to 594 at full capacity.
Amaar toured the facility and met with our general contractors, Marpac Construction.
You can learn more about WNYA’s Leaving to Learn program or join their network of partners.
