Program at Mesa high school teaching students valuable work skills while helping the community

MESA, Ariz. - A student-led, student-run program that prepares students for the future while helping students and community members in need is now up and running at a Mesa high school.

Westwood High School's Working Warriors program began two years ago, and has blossomed into something truly amazing.

"When it started it was just a mess, " said Westwood High School applied learning teacher Daniel Becker. "A pile of items and us just trying to figure out how to get it to the people who needed it."

Students of all abilities spend their time stocking the shelves of the care closet, and packing bags for students in need. The motto of the Working Warriors program is "every student is employable."

"Students within the schools will have open access to these things," said Becker. "Here at Westwood, we have a care closet where they can come and take these things as they need them, and families can come and request items, and we can get them to them."

Becker says the class is to teach students like Savannah Stump job skills that will hopefully translate into a job after high school.

"I learn time management, because time is always important," said Stump, who is a senior. "I learned work skills that I’ve never learned before, and I learned communication."

Once everything is packed, Mesa Public Schools Applied Learning Transition Facilitator Eli Duncan takes another group of students known as Warriors on Wheels with him to drop off the care packages to other schools. This will help stock their care closets.

"We have a variety of students with various disabilities, with a variety of abilities to do work. We do believe they can all do some type of work at some level," said Duncan.

The program's biggest sponsor is Amazon, which donated many products. The school is always looking for other partners to help grow the program, and hopefully make it bigger every year.