Through the Career and Technical Education (CTE) program at Grand County High School students are given the opportunity to participate in an internship in our community. With countless choices that could align with different students’ pathways, kids are gaining job skills all over the community, from Grand County EMS to the Moab Sun News–where I’m starting my internship. My name is Genna Duniway and I’m a senior here in Moab. Over the next seven weeks I’ll be following along with a couple of these students’ work-based learning programs, reporting on what the interns are doing and how each kid is struggling, growing, and learning.
When I mentioned to the internship coordinator at the school, Ashley Violett, that I was interested in working with the Sun News, she jumped for joy and flung her arms in the air. These programs wouldn’t be possible without her and other members of the CTE staff’s hard work. Thank you, Ms. Violett.
I grew up in Moab, and my parents were riding bikes, skiing, and rafting with me and my siblings starting when we were young, and that has continued throughout my seventeen years of life. It has given me an appreciation for the outdoors and driven me to complete two Outward Bound courses over the last two years, one on and around Mount Baker in northern Washington and the other in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. My time here at home is also consumed by running and competing in cross country with the team here at the high school.
While completing a CTE pathway, I’m also using this time at the paper to build my portfolio as the 2023-24 English Sterling Scholar, for which I am also working on opening a writing center at the school with the help of Ms. Arita Graham, the senior English teacher at GCHS and the Sterling Scholar advisor. I hope to be able to expand my writing and interview skills as this year’s senior yearbook editor as well, because for the first time in three years we are working on including more of a focus on journalism in the book.
Each week I hope to be able to shine light on not only students, but also on businesses and nonprofits throughout our small town, and by the end of this experience have a collection of pieces written by myself to showcase my experience and growth.
