Originally aired on KEVN Black Hills Fox, March 21, 2012. Story by Brendyn Medina. http://www.blackhillsfox.com/2012/03/21/Box-Elder-students-get-some-real-work-experience

A handful of local students are gaining some hands-on experience and the work they’re doing is going to a good cause in the Northern Hills. Students in the painting program at the Box Elder Job Corps have been working for the past week to refurbish the pool area in the Sturgis Community Center. Their painting instructor says the practice they’re getting this week will translate into valuable real-world experience when it comes time for them to find a job.

Tim Raftery says, “The process started with coming down and showing the students how to look at a project, decide what we need to do on the project and we’ll do that and go back to the classroom and go over those things and then we’ll come back and actually start the project.”

Raftery says he’s been bringing his students to do work at the Sturgis Community Center for the past decade.