HORSE CAVE — Jordon Forbes knew all along she wanted to be a hair dresser.

When the opportunity arose for her to have a job-shadowing experience through the School to Work Program at Caverna High School, she jumped at the chance.

Forbes talked to Gada Denton, owner of Gada’s Beauty Salon in Horse Cave, about the program. Denton agreed to take part and allowed Forbes to spend her senior year shadowing the hair dressers at the salon.

Forbes started out folding towels and doing minor tasks, but the experience helped her decide if it was the career she really wanted.

Denton said she could tell Forbes would be a good hairdresser.

“She was too attentive to what we did and was willing to learn,” she said. “My girls really enjoyed working with her. If she chose to go to beauty school, we wanted her to come back. She is always willing to learn. She’s always watching, seeing what’s going on. I think she’s going to make a really good hairdresser.”

After spending a year at the salon, Forbes enrolled at The Hair Design School in Elizabethtown. She said the experience helped her a lot.

“Whenever I started school I already knew a lot of the basic stuff and that helped so much, knowing just the basics like how to apply color and how to know, at least, the guidelines for cutting hair and everything,” she said.

The 19-year-old recently graduated from cosmetology school and has begun a six-month apprenticeship at the salon.

While she’s only been on the job two weeks, she says being a hair dresser is everything she thought it would be.

“I love it,” she said. “It’s really good.”

The one thing she likes best about being a hair dresser, she said, is being able to make people feel good about themselves.

“Sometimes when they come in here, they don’t feel very good. Just blah. And then when they walk out and their hair looks good they are all excited. I love that,” she said.

The School to Work Program is overseen by Caverna business teacher Marlene West.

“School to Work is like an apprenticeship or job shadowing so they can get out and see what the job they think they want to go into is really like,” she said, adding it gives them an idea of what it’s like to be a member of the workforce as opposed to being a student.

Forbes is the first student to complete the program since West took it over.

“I’m just so proud of her. A lot of her classmates went on to college instead of the trade like she wanted to do. She knew that’s what she wanted to do so she went for it,” West said. “I’m super proud of her.”

Forbes is working to build her clientele, something she says will take a while to do.

“It’s slowly building up,” she said. “I have a few people each day, so that helps.”

Denton believes School to Work is a worthwhile program.

“The School to Work program works really, really good. I think it takes that edge off of somebody working in to work the very first day with being nervous,” Denton said. “She got used to us and we got used to her and by the time she came back to us she was one of us.”

Denton said she thinks such a program helps young people get ready for the real world. However, she won’t be participating again in the program because she said she has no positions available at her salon at the present time.

Forbes is considering going back to school to earn a business degree. She hopes to own her own beauty salon someday.