Warsaw Work-Based Learning Student Spotlight For December

Pictured is Warsaw Area Career Center intern Corbin Johnston, center, with Stephanie Cleland and Amanda Stoffel, his supervisors at health care therapy services at Grace Village Retirement Community. Photo provided by Warsaw Area Career Center.
News Release
WARSAW — Corbin Johnston is working as a therapy intern at Grace Village Retirement Community through the Warsaw Area Career Center’s Work-Based Learning program offered by Warsaw Community Schools.
Johnston, the son of Julie Johnston and Scott Johnston, plans to attend Indiana University in 2024 to study marketing.
Meanwhile, he’s learning a lot through his internship.
What are your job responsibilities? “I help the physical therapist and other therapists with anything they need,” Johnston said in a news release.
How has this position been helpful to you? “This job has taught me that not all work places are the same when in the same field,” he said.
What have you learned? “I have learned to be more vocal with the people in the workplace.”
How is this job preparing you for the future? “This job is allowing me to understand that I may not want to go into this field, but gives an idea of what it is about if I would come back to it in the future.”
What do you like about this job? “I like being able to meet new people by talking to the therapists and the patients.”
What Career Center classes have you taken in your pathway? “Medical Terminology and Principles of Healthcare.”
Johnston’s supervisor at his internship is Amanda Stoffel, lead therapist/speech-language pathologist. Stoffel said the student intern assists therapists with therapy tasks involving patients, cleaning and organizing equipment, filing and other tasks with which therapists need assistance.
How is this job preparing this student for the future? “Students who are thinking about entering the fields of physical therapy, occupational therapy or speech therapy will get experience working with therapists and job shadowing experience in all three fields,” Stoffel said.
What do you think of the WACC Work-Based Learning program? “I think it is an excellent program to help students learn basic skills in an area that they are interested in pursuing as a career before they would begin paying for college courses in a field that they may or may not end up liking.”