A group of high school students spent their summer getting paid to attend classes at Northwestern Connecticut Community College.

"It's actually a lot of fun and I thought if I could have fun and make money -- why not do it?" said high school junior Victoria Measles.

The program, called Foundations, is federally funded by the Department of Labor.

"They told us that if we had an in-school youth program that the students would have an opportunity to be paid and we jumped at the idea," said Denise Linden of NWCCC.

For five weeks, the students receive a minimum-wage paycheck to attend class. Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Mike Hydeck reported that in this year's project, students learned how to make a claymation movie.

During the course of the project, the students took hundreds of still pictures and spent a full week moving the figures frame-by-frame to create a one-minute movie.

"We learned how to make clay figures and how to make the sets and take pictures and how to make them move and put the stuff together," said high school freshman Kevin Vold.

In addition to learning about claymation, the students learned life skills, such as balancing a checkbook, about applying to college and preparing for a job interview.

Hydeck reported that although the summer program has ended, the students will be able to utilize the college throughout their high school years for tutoring. The students will also be able to take college-level courses.

For more information about the program at Northwestern Connecticut Community College, dial 860-738-6300.

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