Cobb County teachers spent July 28 inside a credit union, shadowing marketing specialists, IT staff, accountants and HR professionals so they could bring real-world career knowledge back to students just days before the 2026-2027 school year began.
The daylong externship at Credit Union of Georgia's Kennesaw location was part of the Cobb County School District's Career Education Teacher Externship Program, which places educators in workplaces to observe how classroom skills translate to actual jobs. CCSD classes started Tuesday, Aug. 4.
"Our partnership with Cobb County School District is rooted in education," Amanda Arnold, director of community outreach at Credit Union of Georgia, said in a statement. "Since our founding by Cobb County educators in 1960, supporting students and teachers has remained at the heart of everything we do."
That founding connection is literal. Seven educators from the Marietta City and Cobb County school systems established the credit union in 1960, according to the Marietta Schools Foundation. Sixty-six years later, the institution hosted their professional descendants for a look at five departments: Marketing, Information Technology, Operations, Accounting and Human Resources.
Participating teachers explored career pathways and heard from professionals about their educational backgrounds, career journeys and the skills students need to enter those fields, according to eastcobber.com.
The externship fits into a broader CCSD career-education pipeline. As we reported Aug. 1, the district opened a second Cobb Innovation and Technology Academy campus at Allatoona High School this month, enrolling 116 students alongside nearly 500 at the original Osborne High location.
East Cobb high schools each have named Work-Based Learning coordinators who connect students to workplace experiences: Patti Cowles at Walton, Patrick Abney at Pope, Kyle Rustay at Lassiter and Claudia Batichon at Wheeler, according to CCSD's CTAE page.
The district has not disclosed which schools sent teachers to the July 28 externship or how many educators participated.
The next Cobb County Board of Education meeting is Thursday, Aug. 20, with a work session at 2 p.m. and a board meeting at 7 p.m. at 514 Glover St. in Marietta. Both sessions include public comment periods.
