News Release: Russell JAG-K Hosts Harvesting Ceremony to Celebrate Successful Summer Internships
September 12, 2025
“I want you to know this is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Cambrea Solze, a senior at Russell High School stated as she reflected on her time in the JAG-K program. “You need to steal it while you can.”
Solze recently finished an internship in the Radiology department at Russell Regional Hospital in Russell, Kansas. “I always knew I wanted to go into the medical field, but I didn’t know exactly what part,” She stated as her reason for applying for the internship opportunity. “My internship gave me such a deep understanding of what Radiology Techs do.”
Solze, along with five other students from Russell High School were able to do summer internships in their desired career fields thanks to a unique partnership between Ogallala Commons and their local Jobs for America’s Graduates-Kansas (JAG-K) program.
To participate in the summer internship program hosted by Ogallala Commons, JAG-K students in Russell must apply for an internship, go through a selection process, and if chosen, attend an orientation in Texas at the beginning of the summer. Throughout each student’s internship, they must meet the following three requirements:
- 100 hours of work in their internship
- 10 hours of community service
- 3 blog posts: An introductory bio post, a post about the commonwealth assets in their community, and a final post about their community service and a reflection on their overall experience.
The culmination of the JAG-K interns’ experience is the Harvesting Ceremony, which was hosted at the Dream Theater in Russell on September 10th, 2025. This year, all of the students who participated in internships over the summer shared their experiences in the form of self-made movies, which played on the big screen while the audience was filled with members of the Russell community. The four students who were present also hosted a question-and-answer session after the film concluded. Two of the interns were unable to attend, as they have graduated and are away for college.
“Before I joined JAG-K, it seemed like everyone I know knew exactly what they were passionate about and knew what they were going to do after high school,” Allison Grieve, another senior at RHS stated. “I had no clue what I wanted to do.”
Like Solze, Grieve also interned with Russell Regional Hospital in the surgical center. “My internship showed me that there are so many opportunities in the medical field,” Grieve stated in her portion of the film. “It made me realize that this is exactly what I want to do. I want to help people in every way possible.”
Thanks to her internship, Grieve has decided she will become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), and she has even decided her first steps toward that career: attending Barton Community College for her nursing degree, before moving on to anesthesiology school.
In addition to their individual internships, the six students also created a brand-new program in Russell to meet their community service hours requirement. This new program, called Helping Hands, aims to provide community care for the elderly demographic in Russell. More information about Helping Hands can be found here.
Russell JAG-K is making great strides in their community. We are excited to see what will come next for them!
JAG-K is a multi-year, in-school program for students in grades 6-12 that offers tools to successfully transition students into post-secondary school, the military, or directly into the workforce with marketable skills. Kansas’ 114 JAG-K programs serve approximately 6,000 students in 48 school districts across the state. JAG-K Career Specialists help students graduate and learn career, leadership, and life skills by executing a nationally-accredited, evidence-based model. Participants must meet criteria to be selected for the program and have potential to overcome various barriers to post-secondary success.
The 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization is a state affiliate of the national JAG program network which operates in 32 different states and territories. It is primarily funded through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant to the State of Kansas administered by the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF). In addition to school districts and DCF, JAG-K partners with the Kansas Department of Education. Other JAG-K funding sources include ADM, AT&T, Barton Community College, EagleU, Goldstein Charitable Trust, Independence Community College, the JB and Anne Hodgdon Foundation, Honeywell, John Deere, Johnson County Community College, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, Kansas Gas Service, the Kansas Insurance Department, Magellan Financial, Mark One Electric, the Office of the Kansas State Bank Commissioner, United Way of Kaw Valley, United Way of the Plains, U.S. Bank, Walmart and Washburn Tech.
To learn more about JAG-K, visit www.jagkansas.org, or ‘Jobs for America’s Graduates-Kansas’ on Facebook, X and LinkedIn.