By Tyler Dahlgren

In Wahoo, opportunity doesn’t just wait for students at graduation. Instead, it greets them while they’re still walking the halls. 

At Wahoo High School, the Career Exploration Opportunities (CEO) program has become a signature piece of the district’s identity, a bridge between high school classrooms and the living, breathing world of work that awaits outside the school’s doors.

On the surface, CEO is a semester-long internship for seniors.. But take a deeper dive and you’ll discover the program is much more than that. It’s a community network. A workforce pipeline. A confidence builder. For many students, it’s the first time they’ve been trusted to step into adult roles. They’re counted on. They make real decisions. They show up. 

It’s a chance to take their futures for a test drive, before receiving a diploma and venturing off into the rest of their lives.

It all started back in 2017 with a simple question: What do our students need to thrive here, in Wahoo, and beyond?

The creation of the CEO program traces back to a Nebraska Department of Education grant designed to support career exploration. What the district did with that opportunity would set everything that followed into motion.

“The leaders in our district at that time pulled leaders from our community together,” said program coordinator Shannon Hauswald. “They met after hours and talked about how we could partner with businesses to give our students exposure to what is available here in Wahoo.”

That conversation revealed a truth familiar to many small towns. Teenagers often assume their only local job options involve the local fast food joints or part-time retail, the places they most often frequent themselves.

“They don’t necessarily always realize there’s a huge medical facility here,” Hauswald said. “Or that there’s Omaha Steel, car dealerships or JEO Consulting and how many branches they have across the U.S.”

So, the school vowed to open as many doors for its seniors as possible.

“In smaller communities, it’s hard to recruit from the outside,” WHS principal Vernon Golladay said. “But people who grow up in Wahoo usually love Wahoo. If we show you the opportunities you have to build a great life, to raise a family, that keeps our businesses flourishing. And it gives kids a reason to come back.”

No one in the district questioned whether the community would support such a program. That wasn’t even an afterthought. Wahoo has always loved their Warriors.

“People here are invested in our kids,” Hauswald said. “We’ve had great partnerships from day one.”

They picked up the phone and started making calls.

The list of CEO partners spans nearly every industry in the town of nearly 5,000: healthcare, trades, manufacturing, public service, natural resources, automotive, finance, technology, education. And it’s a list that continues to grow. 

“I’ve reached out to businesses who’ve said, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know you did this, tell us more,’” Hauswald said. “But honestly, more often the businesses reach out to me saying, ‘We heard about this program. We want to be part of it.’”

In Wahoo, the schools are the cornerstones of a proud community.

“The schools are still the hub,” Golladay said. “People come to sports, fine arts, everything. Even when their kids graduate, they stay involved. It all circles back. People want to be connected, and we want our students to be connected. It just works out. It’s one of the best things about small towns.”

Before they set foot in a workplace, CEO students first learn to navigate résumés, communication and interviews. The interview piece, Golladay and Hauswald agree, is incredibly valuable.

“For many of them, it’s their first real interview,” Hauswald said. “Some businesses want to do their own, and I encourage that. If they interview with us, they’re comfortable. But if they interview with a hospital HR department? They step it up a notch.”

That early exposure comes with expectations. CEO isn’t automatic. Students must earn and protect the privilege. They’re not only representing themselves, Hauswald tells them, they’re representing Wahoo Public Schools.

“I like to think that I’m respectful and kind, and I always keep that in the back of my mind,” said Aubrey Fingerhut, who is currently interning at the Saunders Medical Center. “Just always make sure that you treat people the way you want to be treated. I make sure that I represent my school and this program well.”

Employers notice. From Hauswald’s office, we made cold calls to the Lower Platte NRD and Sid Dillon Chevrolet/Ford of Wahoo. Both happily reported that their CEO students have become dependable members of their respective teams. 

Daniel Oehm, who goes by DJ, grew up working on dirt bikes. He learns better working with his hands, and though he wasn’t set on a future in the automotive industry, an internship with Sid Dillon made perfect sense.

“DJ has a great personality,” said Scott Berner, service manager at Sid Dillon. “He seems to get along with everybody, whether it’s our technicians, our oil changers, any of our service advisors, and his interaction skills are very good. He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty to help somebody out, he asks questions and is very intuitive.”

Sid Dillon has had luck with WHS interns before. A handful of years ago, an intern graduated from Wahoo, went to college at Milford and returned to the dealership, where he works as a technician to this day. 

“What we hope to get out of this deal is two things,” Berner said. “We want kids to learn about our dealership, and if they’re not interested in continuing their career here, then at least they’re comfortable with the store and, should they have car problems, they’ll know where to come first.

Oehm, who plays football, baseball, wrestles and is in FCA, jazz band and show band, has his sights set on a business and marketing degree from a four year school. His future might not be in the automotive industry, but he is extending his internship to next semester, the first Wahoo senior to double up like that.

“Oh, absolutely,” Berner told Hauswald when she reached out about the additional semester. "And if he wants to stay on and be a tech, he’s got a job.”

If there’s one universal benefit to the CEO program, it’s clarity. Students learn what they love–and what they don’t.

“I’ve had kids who were sure they wanted a certain career,” Hauswald said. “And halfway through the semester, they say, ‘That is not what I want to do.’ It’s totally different than what they envisioned. And I tell them—better now than junior year of college.”

Fingerhut entered the program with plans to study radiology. Spending time in multiple departments changed that. She discovered she operates better in an environment where things move quickly.

“I went to radiography and thought, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’” she said. “Then I saw the nurses, the RNs and BSNs, and I really liked what they did. I realized I value working with people and being fast-paced.”

The experience shifted Fingerhut’s post-graduation plan. Initially, she was set on studying radiology and sonography at UNK. Now she’s zoned in on the nursing program at UNL, and she has the CEO program to thank for the course correction.

“I would definitely recommend this to future seniors,” Fingerhut said. “It’s really helpful in terms of determining what you want to do and where you belong, and it also gets you out there and allows you to live what you could be doing for the rest of your life, which is a big deal and a big decision.”

For an educator, watching a student blossom in real time is about as good as it gets. Seniors going through the CEO program take big strides in critical life skills. They become better communicators, more responsible and, in the end, more confident. 

It’s Student Empowerment 101.

“The best thing about my job, and this is even before this program, is seeing kids come in as 14-year-olds and watching the journey they take,” said Golladay. “We have a culture of kids who work hard to be successful in lots of different things. You see that in some of our activities. You see that in our academics, and it's the same thing when they go through and interview for these positions and we send them out into the community. They do a great job not just representing us, but themselves and their parents too. It's pretty awesome.”

Hauswald pushes students to communicate directly with employers—not by text, but by phone or email.

“It’s out of their comfort zone,” she said. “But it matters. They’re learning interpersonal communication, confidentiality, punctuality, professionalism. Those are life skills.”

For employers, the CEO program is more than goodwill. It’s strategic. Everybody wins.

Lower Platte North NRD education coordinator Sydney Abbott, a 2012 WHS graduate herself, said their intern Jack has been an asset from day one.

“We have Jack, and he’s been great,” Abbott said. “From our initial meeting, I could tell that if I needed something done, he'd show up and he'd get it done. He spends a lot of time with a lot of different people, and he clicks with everybody here. He's been super helpful when I've needed help, and I can say that for everybody else, he's kind of just jumped in and done everything that's been asked of him, so it's been really great.”

The intern isn’t afraid to go above and beyond, either.

“He said, ‘If you need me to sort rocks in the parking lot, just tell me what size and what color,’” Abbott laughed.

Abbott, who works with local schools in other avenues throughout the year, sees a deeper purpose in mentoring local students. It’s a torch she carries, both in her job and her life.

“Nebraska is such a great place to be, and you appreciate that more the older you get,” she explained. “I know when you're in high school you think, ‘I'm getting out of here, I'm going to go experience life,’ and I did too, but I want to show them that this is a place to come back to. This is a place where you can absolutely find a job. It's really cool that we get to show them that there is a possibility for them to come back and work right here and make a difference right here.”

Golladay detailed how the CEO program reflects Wahoo’s broader educational mission.

“Our job is to make sure that when you’re 25, you have the ability to do what you want with your life,” he said. “We want to keep as many doors open as possible.”

Dr. Josh Snyder is the district’s director of learning, another WPS administrator dead-set on opportunity. After all, there’s nothing more valuable.

“The CEO program is the backbone, the foundation, when we're talking about career exploration,” said Snyder. “It’s a model for other districts in our area. It's something that we're very proud of and it provides our students a way to connect with local entrepreneurs, businesses, et cetera. It's amazing.”

Snyder’s quest now is to grow it. The program started with five students and two businesses. It's since expanded to more than a dozen seniors working at 13 area businesses. They want more partners, more fields, more opportunities. They want to spread the word.

“The community is great about supporting it,” Snyder said. “We just need to do our part in letting the community know that it’s a thing. We have our established business partners that we've worked with for quite some time, and they absolutely are behind it. Now it’s asking ourselves, ‘How do we attract new businesses? How do we reach out and make new partnerships?”

In Wahoo, when the school calls, the community answers.

“It's very exciting, especially looking to the future,” said Berner. “Wahoo has changed a lot in the 13 years I’ve been at the store, and I think there is a lot more excitement about keeping young people in town.”

The CEO program works because, simply put, Wahoo works. 

For the students, the message is clear. Wherever life takes them, Wahoo Public Schools is in their corner.

For the community, the hope that graduates will one day come back and contribute to a thriving community is just as clear.

After all, as Abbott so accurately stated, “This is a place to come back to.”