For Cathy Witchey, the Dublin Irish Festival is a reunion.
The former Dublin educator and current event coordinator for the city often met her former pupils at the Dublin Irish Festival, which serves as a homecoming event for many former Dublin students.
Witchey shows students how business can intertwine with golf – rules, etiquette, integrity, proper attire, business connections – and takes them golfing at SportsOhio.
“Later on, I heard from several students how it did come into play when they were working,” Witchey says. “One student even got his next job while being paired up with some businesspeople at a golf course.”
“I am supposed to be working at the festival since I work for the city and there are times when I run into kids, and my boss and my coworkers are like, ‘Do you know everybody?’” she says.
Witchey devoted more than three decades of her life as an educator in the Dublin City School District. In the mid-1990s, the language arts teacher swapped roles to help establish an internship program that started out with 20 students and has now grown to more than 100 students this school year.
The Young Professionals Academy offers Dublin students the chance to participate in two internships per semester. During that time, students learn how to write a resume and cover letter and tackle job interviews, and other skills that will help them in the job marketplace.
“It was definitely ahead of its time,” Witchey says.
As the program mentor, Witchey guided students as they immersed themselves in the internship experience. She helped students understand some of the soft skills that are expected in the workplace such as table manners for business lunches and keeping company secrets confidential.
“There were always funny stories on the side,” Witchey says.
For instance, given the fact that 16- and 17-year-old students are spending more time in environments with adults, they’re bound to hear the off-color joke in the workplace, she says.
Witchey, however, gave students the space to discuss those kinds of experiences and framed it as a learning experience.
“It’s demanding. You know, some of the kids, they work on Saturdays, they work on Sundays, they work in the evenings,” she says.
DCS Board of Education President Chris Valentine participates in Mock Interview Day when individuals from various businesses came in to interview and critique the students and their resumes.
In addition, the internship program allows students to explore careers they are potentially interested in and consider whether it is really the right fit.
“Some of the kids have amazing success, like that, they get where they want to go,” Witchey says. “The other kids have success because they figure out what they didn’t want to do and waste their money and went on to do other things.”
In 1999, Karen Harriman joined Witchey as a second teacher for the internship program. Harriman’s own children went through the YPA and saw the value in the program.
As Witchey’s own family grew and after eight years overseeing the YPA, she returned to teaching in the traditional classroom, but she left a lasting foundation for the program.
“The impact the program has had on students and school districts in the community is exponential,” Harriman says. “Honestly, without Cathy Witchey there wouldn’t be a YPA program.”
Witchey spent the last 11 years in Dublin schools as a librarian and in 2015 became a part-time event assistant for the city. Witchey’s boss, who interviewed her for the job, was one of the YPA mentors, too. Witchey became a full-time coordinator and is now a YPA mentor herself – talk about full circle.
Since its beginning, the class has become more reliant on virtual platforms and, like most organizations, had to pivot at the onset of the pandemic. Nearly 300 students were signed up for the program before COVID-19 hit the area, but the program scaled back to 150 students in YPA this year.
Witchey says the city has grown a lot from the small town it was when she started teaching at Dublin Middle School in 1986. She still enjoys seeing her former students as they make an impact in Dublin and around the world.
“It’s really home and these kids still matter to me,” Witchey says.
Dublin Life magazine reached out to some of Cathy Witchey’s former Young Professional Academy students to hear how Witchey and the program impacted their lives.
Mike Frank
Before YPA, Mike Frank says Witchey was his sixth and seventh grade language arts teacher and one of his all-time favorite teachers. Frank says he was selected as one of the students for the YPA program in 1996 and did internships at a law firm and a production studio.
“She gave you the opportunity to try a bunch of things that you might be interested in,” he says.
Frank had an after-school part-time job as a dishwasher at the Wedgewood Golf & Country Club in Powell. After completing his other two internships, Frank asked his boss to expand his involvement with the country club.
“That led me to climb the ladder so to speak,” Frank says.
Frank continued to work at the club throughout high school and college. He attended the Western Culinary Institute (now the as Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts) in Portland, Oregon, and received his bachelor’s degree in food service management from Ohio University. He’s now a certified executive chef at Savoir Cooking & Wine, which offers cooking classes and private events in Powell.
Becca Apfelstadt
When Becca Apfelstadt was in the YPA program in 1998, she thought she wanted to be a magazine writer. Although she had secured an internship with Ohio Magazine, she did her first internship with a public relations agency.
While she was excited about working at the PR firm, she was eager to start her role at the magazine. But things changed after she began at the PR firm.
“It turned out that the marketing advertising PR place was where I fell in love,” she says.
Witchey helped Apfelstadt get accepted to the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University where she studied advertising management.
“Cathy was just a fantastic champion and cheerleader,” Apfelstadt says.
Apfelstadt continued working with the PR firm, doing internships while in school, and worked her way to become a vice president. Eventually, at 27 years old, she co-founded her own firm, Treetree Agency. As the CEO of the firm, Apfelstadt accepts YPA students.
“Students should absolutely take initiative,” she says.
Marni Hughes
Last fall, Witchey was watching TV and saw a commercial that was promoting cable network WGN America’s rebranding as NewsNation, which provides national newscasts in prime time. One of the veteran journalists anchoring the program was Marni Hughes, another YPA alumna. Witchey followed up with Hughes through LinkedIn. Hughes says she remembers Witchey “as if it was yesterday.”
“I appreciated her leadership, her mentoring and always being there for advice,” Hughes says.
Hughes explored a variety of career fields through the YPA program. She did internships at a bakery, advertising and architecture firms.
“I was hungry to get out of the classroom,” Hughes says.
It was difficult to get internships at TV stations when she was in high school, so Hughes started her path to become a journalist in college. With NewsNation, Hughes gets to anchor a three-hour newscast Monday through Friday.
“I was blown away,” Witchey says. “It just feels really good to have that kind of a payoff.”
Brandon Klein is an associate editor. Feedback welcome at bklein@cityscenemediagroup.com.
