Following Student Interests
Job Shadows have been valuable experiences for students to explore careers. Six seniors at Rushford-Peterson High School met with Career Navigators and discussed post-high school plans. As part of Senior Seminar Class with Joel Hinke, students were given contact information for a job shadow or informational interview. If you could hear the excitement, curiosity, and hope for the future, you would be inspired. Career pathways that students have expressed interest in exploring include photography, nursing, criminal justice, environmental law, sports management, automotive mechanics, therapy, teaching, welding and many, many more.
Mabel-Canton will be taking a different approach to career exploration, making it a school-wide initiative. Students will participate in a live Q & A virtual meeting each week with a different professional. Using flex time instead of classroom time, students will watch a career video from FutureForward™ and write questions to the professional on Monday. The professional guest speaker will answer those questions and more during a live Zoom Q & A on Tuesday. We are piloting this format for Quarter 2, starting November 9. Please encourage individuals to sign up through FutureForward™ or contact us directly to get involved.
Spring Grove seniors are well on their way to confidently answering, “What is your plan for next year?” Seniors in Shelly Anderson’s Personal Finance class use their virtual learning day to meet with Carer Navigators. We discuss post-high school plans and identify industries of interest. Their next class assignment is preparing for mock interviews on November 18. The idea is to pair students with a professional in a field of interest and encourage students to use industry-specific language. This professional can provide valuable, industry-specific feedback. This experience is posted in FutureForward™ with space for 27 professionals. Networking is a valuable soft skill and a perk of mock interviews for both professionals and students.
Deciding between locations or job offers was the next lesson for Robbie Sobczak’s Senior Seminar class. Five seniors at Caledonia discussed budgets last week with us. We explored MN DEED’s website, looked at cost of living and compared scenarios of location and family size. I enjoyed hearing opinions from students of future plans, based on classroom scenarios and discussions.
