Aug. 7--COAL TOWNSHIP -- A new greenhouse on the campus of the Shamokin Area School District will help teach students in the environmental science classes about growing plants. The students who created the new greenhouse got a career-focused lesson during the program presented with federal stimulus project money.

The Central Pennsylvania Summer Employment Experience program (SEE Central Pennsylvania) brought several students together from Shamokin Area and Mount Carmel Area high schools to teach them all about academic enrichment, career development and entrepreneurship over the three-week course.

For one student, Cody Haupt of Shamokin, this gave him a look into the future, as he hopes to pursue a career in construction.

"The biggest thing I learned this week is that teamwork helps a lot," Haupt said. "There would be days that there would only be a few of us working out here and the days would just drag and be really hard with only a few of us working. The more people working, the quicker it all goes."

Bill Clark, a teacher at Shamokin Area High School, said the design for the greenhouse came from students in his classes last year.

"Some of the students in my environmental science classes designed the greenhouse and this was the perfect project to bring it all together," Clark said. "The way it is designed, we can start growing plants about three weeks earlier and keep the growing season going three weeks later."

During the three-week program, the students were recruited to learn entrepreneurship principles in the classroom and then experience putting a business plan into effect through participation in a hands-on service learning project.

Through curriculum provided by EconomicsPennsylvania, the students learned the basis of entrepreneurship, career awareness/readiness and business and financial success.

While the tables and structure of the greenhouse are in place, the students are waiting for the seeds to come in so they can be planted. Clark says that the plants need to go through a warm germination and a cold germination.

The greenhouse, which will be known as the Shamokin Area Native Plant Nursery, will help create beautiful landscapes that provide wildlife habitat and reduce maintenance costs.

"At the Shamokin Area Native Plant nursery, we aim to offer property owners an opportunity to add beauty and heritage to the local landscape we all share, not just with each other, but with the native plants and animals that flourish here," Clark said.

Once the seeds are received and planted, Clark hopes that the plants will be available for sale in the spring, but the class will try to have a fall sale as well, if it is possible.

SEE Central Pennsylvania is one of many summer youth employment programs operating across the nation this summer due to a $1.2 billion funding provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed by President Barack Obama.

The goal of the program is to provide youth with summer employment opportunity and exposure to the world of work in the current economy when the unemployment rate for youth has drastically increased, due to both a reduction in available positions and increased competition with adults for limited jobs.

EconomicsPennsylvnaia and the two school districts teamed up with the Central Pennsylvania Workforce Development Corporation, which is providing summer employment and academic experiences for more than 650 youth across the region this summer.

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