Published 04/02/2026
BRCC employs career coaches in each of the public high schools in our service region – it is a cost-shared position between BRCC, the BRCC Educational Foundation, and local school districts. Their goal is to work with the “middle majority” of students who are not sure what their next step is after high school. The coaches help the students with career exploration, job shadowing, applying to college or trade school, accessing financial aid, and lots more.
Samantha Hughes, the career coach at Wilson Memorial took 26 students to participate in the Day in the Life of a Line worker at Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative. She said that “SVEC had different stations set up for students to explore, including a climbing demonstration, an opportunity to try their hand at wiring and tools, and a demonstration of ways electric lines can be damaged (the students called it “what happens when a squirrel gets on a line”).
Similarly, the career coach at Stuarts Draft, Margo McIntire, took about a half-dozen students to a Day in the Life at SVEC at their Staunton location this past fall. She said that “the students saw active simulations and participated in hands-on activities representing the day-to-day activities of linemen. It was a lot of fun and the presentation was very age appropriate and educational.”