Sep 8

Sep 8 For students ready to join the workforce, LCPS is ready to help

As a junior at South Lenoir High School, Tristan Harrison inaugurated a new internship program with the City of Kinston’s Public Services Department last fall. His praise-worthy work in the department’s Fleet Maintenance operation paved the way this summer for a paid internship program involving eight LCPS students. It also earned Tristan part-time work last school year, full-time work this summer and the promise of employment when he graduates.

By Patrick Holmes

September 4, 2025

With local employers hungry for qualified workers and more students anxious to go to work, Lenoir County Public Schools has stepped up with instructional programs and personalized assistance that high school graduates can literally take to the bank.

For the vast majority of LCPS seniors, a diploma is a steppingstone to college; but for about 10 percent of graduates – a figure typified by the recent Class of 2025 – a diploma is an admission ticket to the workforce. Students who feel they are ready to work and earn a paycheck are typically moved along that path by Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses that help them identify a potential career, prepare them for a workplace setting and provide the background they need to get started. Career development coordinators at each of LCPS’s three traditional high schools pinpoint employment opportunities and acquaint students with apprenticeship and internship programs that directly connect them to local employers.

Student and employer participation in LCPS’s work-based learning programs has tripled in recent years, according to Dr. Amy Jones, the district’s director of high school education and CTE.

“We understand that success looks different for every student. While college is one path, many of our graduates are eager to enter the workforce and start building their future right away,” Jones said. “It is our responsibility to honor those ambitions by preparing them with real-world skills, industry credentials and hands-on experiences through strong career and technical education programs and work-based learning.”

The Class of 2025 added auto mechanics, electric linemen, welders, truck drivers and restaurant cooks, among other occupations, to the payrolls of employers in the area. Each year, about 20 students become certified nurse assistants through their high school health science curriculum, which can lead to a job and, for some, a way to finance their studies toward a nursing degree.

Five spring graduates now have jobs at Kinston’s Crown Equipment after completing a year-long apprenticeship program, where success means the guarantee of a high-wage job and continued schooling.

Over six years, 18 students have completed the program and a half-dozen continue to work at Crown, a manufacturer of lift trucks sold worldwide. Seven students came aboard as apprentices as Crown’s partnership with LCPS enters its seventh year.

Eight 2025 graduates and current seniors from Kinston, North Lenoir and South Lenoir high schools earned practical experience in five different areas of work – from engineering to street maintenance – as paid summer interns with the City of Kinston’s Public Services Department, a new partnership that offers the possibility of full-time employment and access to the department’s own career development programs.

“For our department, probably 85 percent of our positions do not require any college education, so we are looking for students coming straight out of high school who are interested in joining the workforce,” said Steve Miller, the city’s public services director, said. “We weren’t getting applications from people coming out of school, so we wanted to make sure they became aware of the careers that we have.”

The internship program grew out of the complementary interests of Public Services and LCPS’s CTE program and owes much to Tristan Harrison, a senior at South Lenoir High School who, as the lone intern last fall, leveraged his interest and training in auto mechanics to land a spot in Public Service’s Fleet Maintenance operation. Tristan’s praise-worthy work paved the way for the expanded summer internships and, as importantly, earned Tristan a part-time job last school year, a full-time job this summer and the promise of permanent employment with Fleet Maintenance after he graduates, possibly as soon as December.

“I love it,” Tristan, 17, said of auto mechanics, a skill he’s developed by tinkering at home and working on his truck. “This is something I’ve always wanted to do when I got older.”

South Lenoir -- particularly Melanie Smith, the school’s career development coordinator – helped make that wish a reality by encouraging Tristan’s natural aptitude through auto mechanics classes, ushering him into the internship program and tweaking his high school schedule to accommodate his work schedule.

“The internship is really designed for students who don’t think they’ll immediately go to college, but they’re still looking for good employment locally,” said Smith, who is LCPS’s point person for the partnership with the city. In Tristan’s case, the next step could be certification in his field, instruction the city would pay for, according to Smith.

For students with a ready-to-work mindset, schooling can follow the parallel lines of hands-on experience and formal instruction. Tristan, for one, values the practical training he’s found with Fleet Maintenance – “Before I came in here I thought I knew about everything, but it turned out there’s a lot I didn’t know,” he said – and yet he can see the value of something more.

“I can probably get certified in mechanics,” he said. “Going to college shows how much care I put into my work.”

Like Tristan, North Lenoir High graduates Fisher Hartsell and Cooper Tilghman turned a long-held interest into a vocation. Finishing high school early last December, they enrolled in a 16-week program at Nash Community College and earned certification in electric line construction. Fisher landed a job with C-Phase Services, a Kinston-based utilities contractor, and Cooper, with Pitt-Greene EMC.

For Fisher, 18, the job feels like the beginning of a career. “I really enjoy it,” he said. “All through high school, that’s what I was looking at doing. I know a lot of linemen and talked a lot with those people and it just sounded like something I’d be interested in. I like working with my hands and building stuff.”

Down the road, he expects to acquire an associate degree, building on the college credits he earned at Lenoir Community College while in high school; but he’s intent on charting his own course on his own schedule. “My brother is starting a master’s program at East Carolina, but that’s not for me,” Fisher said. “I’m a hands-on guy.”

If students are becoming more aware of such options, so is LCPS. “Our community has tremendous career opportunities right here in Lenoir County and we want to ensure that our graduates are prepared and are ready to tap into them,” Dr. Jones said. “There is a growing awareness across our high schools that we must create opportunities for all students, especially those who want to go straight to work.”

Neuse News is an independent, locally-owned startup based in downtown Kinston. We’re committed to providing free, hyper-local news across Lenoir, Greene, and Jones counties—the kind of stories that matter most, delivered in a format built for today.

We don't charge subscriptions. Instead, we rely on readers like you—and the businesses that serve our community. When you shop local, dine local, and click on our sponsor ads, you help us keep real journalism free and accessible.