General

Putting students on the right path

Imagine high school students conducting an energy audit of their school building, creating an arboretum on school grounds, or developing a model of a sustainable tiny home that could greatly reduce carbon footprints.

That’s exactly the type of work going on in the Sustainability Pathway at Westview High School in Bennington, thanks to the foresight of Omaha Public Schools and community partners like Omaha Public Power District. Students in the program take courses in civil and community engineering, clean energy research and development, and environmental studies.

A number of OPPD professionals are working alongside the students and teachers at Westview to help shape the program by reviewing curriculum, finding resources or tapping professionals to serve as mentors. One is Bridget Slavin, Sustainability Program manager at OPPD.

A New Jersey native, Slavin attended Creighton University, where she double-majored in sustainable energy technology and business. After graduation, she worked a few years at Valmont before joining OPPD in 2023.

Slavin works to ensure that the utility sustains operations and future generation, with “environmental stewardship being a huge portion of sustainability,” she said. That requires a current and future workforce of engineers, researchers and other specialists.

“One of my main roles is serving on an advisory board and meeting monthly with Rachael Arens and LeeAnn Stover and other teachers who teach these courses at Westview,” Slavin added.

She calls the program and its potential impact on students, OPPD and other local employers impressive.

“There was nothing like this being offered when I was in high school,” Slavin said.

Academies and pathways

Omaha Public Schools launched the College & Career Academies and Pathways program at its high schools in 2021 after an extensive stakeholder outreach process, with a goal of preparing every student for success.

The process included input from Omaha Public Schools staff, students, families, the community and community leaders via.

“The charge to the school and community from then- Omaha Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Logan was to look at the three H’s: high skill, high demand and high wages,” said Arens, curriculum specialist and Director of College and Career Academies and Pathways for Westview.

“We looked at the data and identified the pathways,” said Arens, who has a doctorate in education. “Some are duplicated within high schools and some are unique to the schools.”

The first year of high school, a Freshman Academy helps students transition from middle school with a focus on basic skills and career exploration.

By the end of freshman year, students pursue either an academy (a small learning community of students with similar career interests who take career-focused classes) or a pathway (a series of classes that focus on a group of related careers).

Other pathways

In addition to the sustainability pathway, Westview High also offers pathways in health sciences, business and education. Along with OPPD, community partners serving on the advisory board there include Olsson, University of Nebraska Medical Center, University of Nebraska Omaha, Makovicka, QLI and others.

Pathways at other Omaha Public Schools high schools include technology & data, legal studies, leadership & global studies, dual language, media arts and more, with community partners in these fields also serving in advisory roles.

“We are seeing so many positive outcomes,” said  Arens, who has been with Omaha Public Schools for 11 years. “Three years ago, these classes didn’t exist. The pathways are allowing students to find opportunities that they are excited about. Some students have secured good internships, and others are networking, receiving certifications, and getting scholarships.”

“OPPD has been a huge partner for us,” Arens said.

A group effort

Jene’ Reese, James Thiele, Jamie Wagner and Eric BenSalah are other OPPD professionals helping shape Westview’s sustainability pathway.

Reese, manager of Large Commercial & Industrial Sales & Services, has presented information to classes, arranged speakers and is putting together an Introduce a Girl to Engineering conference.

Thiele, Wildlife & Natural Resources Program manager, gave Westview students and staff a tour of OPPD’s arboretum at 108^th & Blondo streets. He advised them on the creation of their own arboretum, slated to officially open in May.

Wagner, product manager, has served on the advisory board alongside Slavin. She also has helped teachers arrange field trips to OPPD facilities and find experts for classes. Wagner, Slavin, BenSalah and a few others from OPPD played big roles last fall in the Youth Power Summit that many Omaha Public Schools students attended.

The energy guy

BenSalah, however, may be the most-recognized among Westview students and staff.

Sporting a bright orange blazer, BenSalah has been teaching energy classes and conducting teacher workshops throughout OPPD’s service territory since 2022, interacting with more than 5,000 students so far.

BenSalah created an energy education program after revamping OPPD’s energy efficiency web pages. The pages give customers and students a good place to find updated information and resources.

As OPPD’s energy consultant, BenSalah was a natural fit to work with the Westview program. He serves on the advisory board, has given in-depth talks about energy topics in the classroom (how solar panels work and how to conduct and energy audit, to name a few) and has helped conduct mock interviews for Freshman Academy students.

“Eric helped develop our Clean Energy courses,” said Stover. Much of the curriculum involves project-based learning.

“The district has given us a lot of freedom and placed trust in our expertise,” she said. “It has been rewarding and a lot of fun, and the program is getting stronger as we go.”

Fueling the pipeline

BenSalah said he followed a winding path to his current career. After attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he worked in customer service, technical support, banking and heating/air conditioning roles before joining OPPD.

“When I was in high school, I didn’t know about OPPD,” BenSalah said. “I learn by doing, and I would have enjoyed classes like these.

“I’m excited about what we are doing with Westview. You can see the lightbulb going off in the students, and it’s infectious. This education will help them make career decisions sooner.”

Arens said it is important students hear stories like BenSalah’s.

“People don’t always follow a linear path,” she said. “They often heard about the same fields in the past, not the nuanced careers that they are learning about now.”

Stover herself landed in teaching after working several years as a biotechnologist at both Creighton University and UNMC research labs. She followed that up with a few years each in medical sales and newspaper sales. The she earned a teaching degree, then two master’s degrees.

“Energy jobs are changing. We don’t know what they will look like in 10 years,” Stover said. More and more careers don’t require four-year degrees, she added.

Omaha Public Schools and community partners are keeping track of emerging trends in the various fields to ensure the pathway programs help reduce gaps in the local employment pipeline, Arens said.

Stover added, “We have great community partners that we would never have without pathways.”