Katie Wolfe’s Story: Connellsville CTC

By Melanie Muha

Katie Wolfe, a student at Connellsville Career and Technology Center (CTC), accepted TCP’s challenge and volunteered for over 300 hours of community service last year. She was recently rewarded for that amazing achievement at the fall kick-off assembly at her CTC. Receiving a $200 check for something she loved to do gave Katie another reason to give back to her community.

Katie plans to keep working towards the Community Service Award from TCP this year as well. “I like going out and helping the community whether it is volunteering with Fayette EMS or working with my church around the community.” She likes that TCP challenges her each year to achieve more. “It sets a goal for me to look towards and keeps me working hard in and out of school. I realized I already do community service, so why not try to do as much as I can and challenge myself.”

Earning the award meant a lot to Katie since she puts a lot of time and effort into giving back to her community. She says, “I was extremely proud that I did 320 hours of community service so I knew I had done a lot but I didn’t really expect to receive the award. I was shocked when my name was called.” She would recommend that her fellow students push themselves to work towards an award as well. “I think all students should set a goal to try and earn an award with The Challenge Program. Even if you don’t get the award, you still have moved closer to the goal you set for yourself and it will honestly make you feel good about what you have achieved.”

Connellsville CTC is sponsored by Williams. Katie remembers Williams coming to her school to challenge them. “I remember they said that they want to hire people who are from our area.” If she could say anything to Williams it would be, “Thank you for bringing the Program here. It means a lot that you chose our school. It gives us students a real chance to be rewarded for doing good things.” Katie also believes more businesses should sponsor schools because “if more businesses were involved, more students could have a goal to work towards. Then when they reach that goal and are rewarded for it, they will feel proud of what they accomplished.”

The Challenge Program manages to reach tens of thousands of students like Katie each year. Katie’s story is one of the many reasons TCP staff travels to more than 130 schools a week in the Fall and Spring, puts thousands of miles on their cars, and leaves each school knowing that every student believes they can be a part of this Program.