Work Experience Funded by Full-Service Community School Grant from Dept. of Education Helps Ollis Burnett Decide to Pursue Career in Legal Field

Working as an attorney can be a rewarding career. Just ask Bell County Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Ollis Burnett, who as a high school student working a summer job in 2015 saw first-hand how attorneys can have positive impacts on the lives of others. It was one of the reasons, he said, that he decided to pursue a career in the legal field. 

Ollis Burnett

The road to where Burnett is now in his career began that summer when, as a student ready to go into his senior year at Knox Central High School, he learned about a local program that could help him find a job. That program turned out to be the Kentucky Career Center JobSight at KCEOC Community Action Partnership. 

“I decided to enroll in the program because my mother raised me and my brother to always work hard and value our education,” Burnett said. “I was 17 and had never had a job. I had always been interested in the legal field but was not absolutely certain on which particular part of that field I wanted to explore as a future career.” 

A partner in the KCC JobSight network, KCEOC provides career services in Knox County under contract with Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP). While those services are normally covered by critically important Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) funds, services for Burnett were funded through a Full-Service Community Schools grant in partnership with Berea College and funded by the U.S. Department of Education.  

The non-WIOA funding provided Burnett with an opportunity to enter a work experience program that paid for his wages while he gained valuable real-world job experience. He was matched with KCEOC Career Advisor Alicia Hill, who helped him enroll in the program and confirmed a job placement for him with the Law Office of Lisa L. Fugate, who is currently serving as Commonwealth Attorney for Bell County.  

When the program ended after Burnett’s senior year of high school, Fugate decided to keep him on staff while he worked toward his bachelor’s degree from Union College in Barbourville. 

“Ms. Fugate was an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney at the time and primarily practiced Family Law in her private practice in which I worked as her legal secretary,” Burnett said. “After seeing the way Ms. Fugate’s work impacted the lives of her clients and their families, I decided that I had chosen the right path and wanted to become an attorney.” 

That summer in 2015 started a path for Burnett that led him all the way to his graduation from Northern Kentucky University’s Chase College of Law in May 2023. By October he had passed the Bar Exam and was sworn in as a member of the Kentucky Bar Association, formally beginning his career as an attorney, again working with Fugate, but this time as her assistant commonwealth attorney.  

Burnett said he is grateful for the experience that KCEOC JobSight provided him and recommends it for anyone looking to land a new job or just gain actual work experience in a career field that interests them. 

“This program allowed me to obtain my first job with Ms. Fugate and gain a lot of experience in the field I was interested in,” he said. “I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I received through this program, and I thank everyone at KCEOC for everything that they do for people in our area.” 

Burnett’s success is the result of countless hours of hard work and dedication on his part, which began when he decided to sign up for a program that is designed specifically for what he needed at the time, noted EKCEP Executive Director Becky Carnes-Miller, and that his career advisor was able to tap into non-WIOA funds for those services illustrate just how important diverse funding sources can be in workforce development. 

“At EKCEP we couldn’t operate without WIOA funding. It literally provides us with the resources to assist thousands of people every year in our service area,” she said. “But stories like Mr. Burnett’s provide us with a glimpse of how critical it is to pursue other sources of funding, both public and private, to help expand our reach and help even more Eastern Kentuckians thrive in the workforce.”  

If you’re interested in applying for career and employment services, visit jobsight.org/locations to find your nearest Kentucky Career Center JobSight and contact a career advisor to get started. 

EKCEP, a nonprofit workforce development agency headquartered in Hazard, Ky., serves the citizens of 23 Appalachian coalfield counties. The agency provides an array of workforce development services and operates the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, which provide access to more than a dozen state and federal programs that offer employment and training assistance for job seekers and employers all under one roof. Learn more about us at http://www.ekcep.org, http://www.jobsight.org and http://www.facebook.com/ekcep.