MISSION VIEJO : Career Awareness Partnership Formed

Students at Newhart School and members of the nearby Viejo Village Merchants Assn. recently combined their resources to form a career awareness program.

“This partnership allows the merchants in our community to give their time and expertise to strengthen the understanding between our school and the business community,” Principal Jim Henderson said.

For merchants, the partnership will provide a way for them to act as business role models, contribute financially to the school and gain new customers by offering special discounts to students and their families.

Viejo Village, which includes 30 businesses ranging from a bowling alley to auto and shoe repair shops, is at Marguerite Parkway and La Paz Road, only blocks away from the school.

For students, the partnership is designed to help them gain lifelong employment skills and a sense of respect and responsibility for community services and business, according to officials in the Capistrano Unified School District.

“We all need to work together if we’re going to make anything work,” said Sue DeCant, a member of the newly formed merchants association and president of the school PTA. “We thought there would be a lot of mutual gain.”

Newhart math teacher Joni Munsell has already put the partnership to work in her eighth-grade class, where students filled out job applications from the local Alpha Beta, then learned how to work with decimals, checkbooks and budgets while visiting the store with their own shopping lists. The hands-on project was a hit with the students, Munsell said.

“The direction in math these days is to get away from pencil and papers,” Munsell said. “In real life, recipes and grocery stores are places where you’ll come up with decimals the most.”

In coming weeks, merchants will be working with the school on other projects, including a student art fair.