Barton County - A non-profit which helps prepare young people to live, work and lead in rural Kansas is looking for businesses willing to offer internships, at no charge to them.
Next Generation Round Up, a program Nex-Tech helped establish, connects students from the classroom to viable local careers, fostering vibrant rural economies.
“The idea came when we looked at these communities we serve and noticed how many young people leave for college or technical school and never return,” Friday Otuya, Community Engagement Specialist, said. “Many small towns struggle so leaders came together and said let’s start a program offering internships for young people.”
Out of that premise came a program that engages young people in elementary school and shows them what it takes to run a small town.
“They learn about banking, saving and managing resources how any small town would run,” Otuya said.
When the students get to middle school or high school, they start learning about internships and work with employers around Barton County and central Kansas
“That’s part of the experience to teach them they can find a life right here in rural Kansas and they don’t have to go to the bigger cities,” Otuya said. “It seems to be a cycle where people retire but when it’s time for young people to come up and take responsibility, they can’t get them engaged in our towns. Pretty soon we won’t have small towns.”
Otuya explained that the salaries for summer interns are covered under the program.
“It doesn’t cost the business anything,” he said.
For more information, contact Otuya at: 785-639-8698.
Digital literacy program available for hosting by local organizations
In an effort to improve online safety and digital literacy, Nex-Tech Academy is available for local groups or organizations, through a partnership with Nex-Tech.
“The foundational drive for this program is that Nex-Tech is a broadband company,” Friday Otuya, Community Engagement Specialist, said. “We said now that we’re connecting people to the cyber world, how do we give them skills to navigate that world safely?”
Topics include cyber safety, AI use, online banking, as well as others.
“Many folks still use their password for all of their accounts, so we educate them on the dangers of that,” Otuya said. “We discuss the risks associated with things like free public WIFI and online banking. That’s the kind of awareness we want community members to have.”
Otuya said the training recently started focusing a great deal on the use of Artificial Intelligence.
“Depending on what training the organization wants to focus on, we can discuss using AI to start a business,” he said. “We can discuss best practices for things like ChatGPT and for what areas you shouldn’t use it.”
