In order to be a functioning member of our society today, it is crucial to be employed and have a stable career. For students, school kick-starts them on that path. However, are we making sure students are getting enough support from their classes to decide on a path for their future?
This is why career connections and real life application in lessons is so important for kids.
This exposure to careers applied in their learning gives meaning to the lesson and helps our students find things that they’re interested in.
“I think it would be beneficial to include more career goal classes,” Senior Nina Ndonwi said. “It
will give students a better idea of what they want to do in the future.”
This is an important change schools should continue to make over time.
“I remember when I was in high school there was, you know, you take certain classes like chemistry, biology, English, but there isn’t a whole lot of classes designed for specific careers,” Science and forensics teacher Vera Weis said.
This poses a problem because the students today are the future, so it makes sense to build that foundation now.
“They just don’t have a lot of exposure and also being you know at most 18 years old it’s hard to see what you could picture yourself doing in the future,” Science & Biology teacher Georgia Thebeau said.
School teaches students fundamental bases on what they should know. Although in reality, it can be difficult to tie these topics to an actual fulfilling career. Since the majority of careers present day require at least a college degree, it’s important students are prepared and supported to take that step.
According to The Carnegie Corporation, “Today’s high school students are arriving at college underprepared: 40 percent fail to graduate from four-year institutions, and 68 percent fail to graduate from two-year institutions. Yet the future of work will require higher — not lower — college graduation rates.”
If students are seen to be struggling after high school, how are we making sure that they are prepared now while in high school to bring down these fail rates?
“For students who have an interest in history, world cultures, politics and current events, pursuing a degree in politics, history, anthropology, world cultures, historical preservation or social studies education is often a common decision. The difficulty may lie in the need to get a bachelors and masters degree in some of these areas in order to get a job in some of these fields,” Social Studies teacher Emily Hill said.
It’s natural to want students to pursue what they are interested in. It’s not easy though to get ready for college and careers while still learning the required standards for graduation. So that’s where career connections come in. We can both meet standards of learning while also applying it to possible careers students could make for themselves. All parts of the school staff must make an effort to do this.
“Through individualized advising, structured exploration tools like Missouri Connections, and career-focused field trips, we are intentionally creating opportunities for students to explore, experience, and plan for their futures with confidence,” HHS school guidance consular Ginger Steinhuaff said.
Real life application isn’t tedious, it’s giving students the needed exposure of what they could do.
“It gives them the idea of what they could do in the future and just options rather than just maybe what their parents do or what other family members do,” Thebeau said. “It also just makes the learning more applicable so they can see how the concepts are actually applied in real life.”
Thankfully, we are seeing more of these real life application adjustments in our school today.
“At Hancock Place High School, we utilize Missouri Connections as a primary vehicle for career exploration,” Steinhuaff said. “The ‘Reality Check’ activity personalizes the financial realities of independent living based on each student’s individual responses.”
Bringing students outside of school walls also is an amazing way to increase their exposure.
“In the classes I teach, almost every other lesson there’s some sort of different type of career in the health and medical field,” Thebeau said. “In my medical interventions class we took a field trip to St. Louis Community college and they did a presentation on different careers in biotech and it was really interesting and just gave them more connections to ‘well you could do this if you wanted to do something biology related.”
As a result of these provisions, students now feel supported to create a future for themselves.
“I think the school is helping me to pursue my career because it has multiple classes like biomedical science in the medical field and that’s what I want to do,” Freshman Lilliana Cave said.
Lets not forget that the students need support and shouldn’t be abandoned on the track to their career. Let’s continue to apply hands-on learning and connect careers in classes.
“Personalized activities help students better understand their futures,” Steinhuaff said. “Exposure creates opportunity and possibility for every student.”
