2025 RRISD Teacher Externship Program

On Wednesday, July 30, the Round Rock Chamber and Round Rock ISD (RRISD) celebrated the conclusion of the 2025 Educator Externship program, honoring its 62 participating educators and over 40 business partners that participated. The program is a partnership between Chamber, RRISD, and Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area (WSRCA) to bolster the area’s talent development.

The goal of the program is to match educators with employers in the teacher’s subject matter and/or a subject matter of interest and includes a five-day onsite job-shadow experience. Educators receive a set number of hours for professional development and gain current, real-world experience. Educators must share their experience and knowledge gained with students and other educators via lesson plans. Business partners get the opportunity to engage with RRISD, learn about current educational trends, and contribute to the next generation of workers.

The program began in 2015 with only six educators participating. While there was a pause in the program due to COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, we were able to restart the program in 2022 and are extremely excited to continue the program again this year with another strong participation of educators and businesses. It is estimated that over 400 externships have occurred since the program’s inception and roughly 42,000 students have benefited since the program’s inception.

Thank you to the numerous business partners that were able to attend the event. We would also like to thank Dr. Hafedh Azaiez, Superintendent of Schools for RRISD; Sheri Bonds, Director of Career & Technical Education; and Peggy Mica, Assistant Director of Career & Technical Education with RRISD for their work in implementing the program and for coordinating the celebration.

This program would not be possible without the funding made available by WSRCA, so a big thank you is due to Paul Fletcher, Chief Executive Officer; Kelly Moreno, Chief Solutions Officer; and the team at WSRCA.

Lastly, thank you to the following organizations that were able to host externs this year:

Austin Community College

Ascension Seton Williamson

Athena Manufacturing

Blanton Museum of Art

Brookwood in Georgetown

Bullock Texas State History Museum

City of Round Rock (Fire Department, Library, Planning & Development Services, Public Works)

Dell Technologies

Diasorin/Luminex

Down Home Ranch

East/West Manufacturing Enterprises

Emerson Automation Solutions

Goodwill Excel Center

Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

GSD&M

Happy State Bank

Helios Fused Glass Studio

Hot Dog Marketing

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

MOD: Architecture

O’Connell Robertson

Page

Penfold Theatre

pi-top

Rawson Saunders School

ROCK Ride On Center for Kids

Round Rock Area Serving Center

Round Rock Chamber

Round Rock Express

Samsung Electronics

St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center

Taylor Made Careers

TECO-Westinghouse

Tekscend Photomask Round Rock Inc.

Texas Science & Natural History Museum

Texas State Technical College

The Contemporary Austin

The Goodkind Co.

The Williamson Museum

Trellis Company

Universal Technical Institute