When Emma Nolan first began a Prosper Appalachia internship with Harlan Health and Rehab as a high school senior, she was still deciding whether nursing was truly the future she wanted. Thanks to that experience, she did not have to wait until college to find out.
Nolan, a recent graduate of Harlan County High School, enrolled in Prosper Appalachia near the beginning of her senior year after learning about the program through Rhett Alred, a Prosper Appalachia Career Development Specialist with EKCEP’s local program partner, Harlan County Community Action. Already connected her with a paid work-based learning opportunity at Harlan Health and Rehab, where she was able to explore the nursing field while still in high school.
Prosper Appalachia is EKCEP’s in-school career exploration and work-based learning initiative, helping high school students across Eastern Kentucky connect their interests with real workplace experience close to home. For Nolan, the placement gave her a chance to test her interest in nursing in a real healthcare setting.
“Prosper Appalachia was a good program, and it helped us get work-based experience,” she said. “It’s actually helped a lot for my future of going into nursing and being able to work at the nursing home.”
Nolan said she had been interested in nursing before starting the program, but her experience at Harlan Health and Rehab made that path clearer.
“Prosper Appalachia has definitely helped me know what I want to do and know what I’m going into because some people just go into what they want to do completely blind and they don’t even end up liking it, but I do like it a lot,” she said.
At Harlan Health and Rehab, Nolan was able to observe Certified Nursing Assistants and learn from them in a real workplace environment. She said the experience gave her an advantage when it came time for clinicals because she had already seen how the work is done.
“I pretty much get to watch the actual CNAs there do what they do,” she said. “And I get to help out a little bit with some things, but not too much because I wasn’t certified at the time.”
That has since changed. Nolan recently earned her CNA certification and plans to continue working in the field through the summer while attending Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. She said staying close to home will allow her to keep working at a facility where she already feels comfortable while she continues toward her nursing license.
The experience has also helped Nolan see that a healthcare career is possible in Harlan County and Eastern Kentucky.
“Definitely,” she said when asked whether Prosper Appalachia helped show her that she can build a career close to home. “I already pretty much am working in Harlan and it’s showed me that I can.”
For Nolan, the internship did more than introduce her to nursing. It also gave her a first job experience and helped her understand what it takes to succeed in the workplace.
“It’s taught me that I have to show up and put in good work effort,” she said. “It’s helped me manage my time because you have to be there. And it showed me how to have a good attitude and work with others.”
She said working with Alred also helped make the process simple and kept her connected throughout the experience.
“I feel like he always stayed on top of us, but in a good way,” she said. “Like he helped us and he pushed us.”
Although the internship was paid, Nolan said the experience itself was just as important as the paycheck.
“It was important,” she said. “Like I felt like it helped, but also at the same time it gave me experience and if I wasn’t getting paid for it, I would still be fine because it showed me what I wanted to do.”
Prosper Appalachia is funded in part through support from the Kentucky General Assembly as part of the Putting Young Kentuckians to Work initiative, but private donations help EKCEP expand critical work experience opportunities for students across Eastern Kentucky. To invest in the future of our region’s young people, donate directly at ekcep.org/donate.
EKCEP, a nonprofit workforce development agency headquartered in Hazard, Ky., serves the citizens of 23 Appalachian coalfield counties. EKCEP is funded by the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, along with various federal and state grants and private donations, and is a proud partner in the American Job Center network.