After a total of 34 years as an educator and 17 years as part of DTSD, School-to-Career Coordinator Bonnie Ritchey is retiring at the end of the the 2017-18 school year.

As the School-to-Career Coordinator, Ritchey communicates with students, mentors, and parents. She sets up internships, manages classroom assistants, and runs the Healthcare Career Exploration program. Over the years in this position, both her network of mentors has grown and have made the internship process easier. However, she has encountered new challenges as well, such as HHS clearance requirements for mentors.

Ritchey graduated from Elizabethtown College with a degree in business education. She started her career in education in 1977 at Hershey High School. Although she has taught in other school districts, including Lower Dauphin and Palmyra, she feels very fortunate to have started and ended at Hershey High School (HHS.)

Other than her work with internships, Ritchey has served as an advisor the HHS Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) chapter. She was the FBLA advisor in other schools, which caused one of her daughters, Dr. Lauren Ritchey, to gain exposure to the organization’s events and create the club at HHS.

Ritchey said she has also enjoyed working with English department head, Shari Taylor-Stuckey, to advise the National Honor Society (NHS) chapter for the past five years. She has found it to be beneficial exposure to students while screening applicants for certain programs.

As an identical twin, Ritchey has often been mistaken from her sister Connie. They were indistinguishable during childhood when they wore identical outfits, according to Ritchey. Years later at graduation ceremonies, Ritchey’s students would ask Connie for photos. Through her experience as a twin and years of working with students, Ritchey has learned that “every student is unique.”

In the future, Ritchey plans to travel and volunteer in her daughter’s elementary school classroom. Her advice for future students is to explore interests during high school to avoid the potentially large financial cost of exploration during post-secondary studies. According to Ritchey, a completed internship is successful despite a possible dislike because students can rule out that career.

Ritchey’s favorite part of teaching is receiving messages from past students’ successes and knowing the importance of her contribution. She also enjoyed building networks within the community.

Richie said, “It’s a really unique teaching position.”