Nevada Students Gain Job Skills Through Goodwill Work Program

Goodwill of Southern Nevada's Student Work Experience Program is helping high school students build confidence and career-ready skills through hands-on training at its Raiders Way store in Henderson.

Students from Coronado High School's self-contained autism class spend Thursdays at the location performing supervised tasks, such as hanging clothes, straightening clothing racks, and organizing merchandise. The initiative provides students with hands-on, real-world job experience outside the traditional classroom setting.

The program partners with the Clark County School District and the Nye County School District, including Pahrump Valley High School, to showcase students' abilities and prepare them for life after graduation.

"We work with the Clark County School District, but we also work with the Nye County School District with Pahrump Valley High School, and the entire purpose is to show the abilities to the young students that come here," Mary Brabant, Goodwill of Southern Nevada's director of disability and volunteer programming, said.

Founded in 1997 by Mary Brabant, the program began with one educator and two students. In 2026, the project had grown to have 583 students and 204 teachers within 82 classrooms in 34 high schools in Clark and Nye counties. Leaders intend to include every high school in each county.

Educators say the experience strengthens teamwork, problem-solving, and independence.

"I just feel like I have the patience and the compassion in that area," Christine Kessler, a teacher of a self-contained autism class, said. "I kept thinking, oh, next year I'm going to try this and do this at Goodwill, and the next year I kept thinking of more and more things that I could implement. It gives my students the confidence, the independence, the teamwork, following directions, the problem-solving skills they have to utilize just beyond the classroom."

"It's not just what happens at the store, it's what they go back to the classroom, they revisit with the teachers, they learn different things that they probably have never done before," Brabant said.

Parents have also noticed changes at home. "Parents report they show more responsibility at home, they're more willing to participate and help with chores and do things around the house," Kessler said