Project SEARCH Opportunity Works takes place on the campus of Northern Essex Community College over a 9-month period. Participants begin and end each day with work readiness classes covering topics like job interviews, résumé writing, teamwork, professionalism, and technology in the workplace. In between the classroom learning, students spend their time interning in different Northern Essex departments. Over the course of the school year, students intern for three months in each of three different departments which range from YMCA Day Care, NECC Police Department, Public Health Response Team, Student Life, Perfect Blend Café & much more!
During NECC’s spring break, OW ProjectSEARCH welcomed guest speakers to learn more information about life skills and personal finance. Opportunity Works board member, Heather Harrell, gave an extremely informative presentation on the basics of banking to the current ProjectSearch interns. On the heals of learning keys terms in their classroom prior to the presentation, the interns were well prepared with questions. Some questions included:
“Can you see how much is in your account if you have a banking app on your phone?”
“What is the difference between a debit and a credit card?”
“Do you write on the back of a check?”
This facilitated an even more open conversation about banking, and really helped drive the presentation as Heather had all the bases covered (see Objectives). 
At the end of the presentation were the key takeaways to the basics of banking and should be reminders for everyone!
Thank you to Heather Harrell for your visit and a wonderful presentation, and good luck to OW ProjectSearch Class of 2023 on your final semester of internships!
Thank you for your support! We had an AMAZING day, thanks to you!
February has just arrived! What an incredible year it’s been so far! We have started our 2nd round of internships & are ready for new challenges and experiences. This unit, we have established & utilized our own professional emails, learned to navigate websites & learned the importance of online safety. Currently, we are learning about Health and Wellness like how to manage our stress, employment impact on our health, the importance of hygiene & grooming & about our Mental Health.
Do you know we run the Snack Bar independently?!
At the Snack Bar, we manage the cash register, restock snacks, take orders, and serve customers! The picture on the right is Katherine G who has the Snack bar as her internship this round!
The Music Department is our NEW internship! At the music dept, we work alongside our supervisor, Alisa to help take inventory of music instruments, scan sheet music, organize NECC stage performance supplies & much more! The above photo is Cameron A. working hard doing inventory at the music department.\
For more information about Project SEARCH or to schedule a tour contact
our program manager Jessica at
Job well done hot cocoa bar for the Parker Hannifin Crew (pictured is Renee and Jasper)! The employment team wanted to celebrate the crew and all their hard work at Parker Hannifin this year!
Thank you to our AMAZING volunteers, and OW employees who gave their time to make this night so special.
One gentleman remarked:
“I wish it could have been longer!” which was a testament to how much fun the dancers were having.
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