Strengthening Round Rock’s future workforce with Teacher Externship Program

The Round Rock Chamber and Round Rock Independent School District (RRISD) celebrated the conclusion of the 2026 Educator Externship program on August 6^th to honor the 18 participating educators and 25 business partners that participated in this year’s program. The program is a partnership between Round Rock Chamber, RRISD and Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area (WSRCA) and is designed 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 over 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. 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.

And a huge thank you to the following organizations that were able to host externs this year:

• Athena Manufacturing
• Blanton Museum of Art
• City of Round Rock
• ClearCorrect LLC
• Diasorin
• East/West Manufacturing Enterprises
• Emerson Automation Solutions
• GSD&M
• Happy State Bank
• HNTB Corporation
• MOD: Architecture
• O’Connell Robertson
• Party Chaos
• Penfold Theatre Co.
• Round Rock Area Serving Center
• Round Rock Chamber
• Round Rock Express
• Stantec
• TECO-Westinghouse
• The Goodkind Co.
• The Williamson Museum
• Trellis Company
• Texas State Technical College
• Typhoon Texas
• Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area

If you are interested in learning more about this program or want to get involved, contact Zach Scott