eters Township
PETERS TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
DREAMING OF THE FUTURE: CAREER EXPLORATION IN PETERS TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS
If you are a follower of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you know that one of those habits is to“ begin with the end in mind.” In Peters Township School District, our end goal is to establish a strong foundation for our students to leave high school and succeed in college and in the career of their choice. To improve our odds of success, we hit the ground running when our students are still at the elementary level.
Our approach to career exploration begins in third grade. While it is not our intention to have children choose their career path in elementary school, we start at this level to expose our students to the basics of economics and business through our partnership with Junior Achievement( JA).
“ The JA program builds off of the economics unit already in place for our third graders,” explains Rob Garvey, Principal of Bower Hill Elementary.“ It takes those basic concepts and applies them to real life for our students.”
JA volunteers from the community work with our teachers for a full day of instruction about financial literacy and how people and businesses manage their money. The goal is to promote a positive attitude toward work and contributing to our society.
A regular volunteer with the program, Greg Gold from Millers ACE Hardware in McMurray, said that he looks forward to coming back every year to work with the students.
“ What they are doing in the classroom is helping to build the foundation for a brighter future for us all,” adds Gold, who also hopes to build a larger JA community volunteer base.
At Pleasant Valley Elementary, the program is further reinforced by the“ Mini-Mall” event. Following their study of economic concepts, students are challenged to create a product within a budget that they will produce and sell to their classmates. All items are sold for no more than $ 0.25 and students must track their profits and expenses. They must also market their products with both signs and a commercial that they read for their classroom of potential customers.
“ These are real life, authentic learning opportunities for our students,” said Greg Marquis, Pleasant Valley Principal.“ We are helping our students begin to think about what they want to do in life – you can never start that too early.”
As the students transition to McMurray Elementary in 4th grade, the opportunities for career exploration continue. Each year, the counselors host a building wide career fair with professionals representing a wide array of options for our students. Students rotate through brief presentations and later reflect on the careers that interested them. Last year guests included an engineer, scientists, a TV news helicopter pilot, a professional baker, therapy dog trainers, emergency medical technicians and more.
“ The presentations are very hands-on for our students and the professionals share their schooling and a glimpse of what activities make up their daily routine,” said Brenda Gruehn, a McMurray Counselor who helps organize the event each year.
Students are also given the option to take part in McMurray’ s Young Entrepreneurs program that is part of the school’ s Student Leadership Group. Once again working with volunteers from Junior Achievement, students work to create a product that can be sold to benefit a charitable organization of their choosing.
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Pleasant Valley ' s Mini Mall
During McMurray’ s annual Fine Arts show, the students set up tables in the Entrepreneur Fair and bring their product to the marketplace.
“ Our Young Entrepreneurs learn so much more than economics during this process,” added Principal Blair Stoehr.“ They are learning creativity, innovation and design, problem solving and accountability – all skills that will be important no matter what career path they chose.”
As our students move on to the Middle School, the career choices start to take shape. Throughout their 7th and 8th grade years, students have the opportunity to attend Career Chats – brief presentations from local professionals representing one of the 16 career clusters outlined by the U. S. Department of Education.
The purpose of the Career Chats program is to help create an awareness about different careers as they relate to student interest and abilities, as well as how different careers are connected to each other. Students choose the Chats they want to attend based on their own interests and abilities.
“ We see anywhere from 30-150 students attend the Chats,” said Mary Beth Kenny-Massaro, counselor at the Middle School.“ We have some students who will attend all of them, and others that really narrow down their selections.”
In 8th grade, the students also take a GOAL Class that includes a strong career component. Students use My Career Journey, an online software program that helps students to connect their skills and preferences with possible careers and career clusters. During the course, the students create a career portfolio, and are also provided instruction from Junior Achievement and their“ It’ s Your Future” program.
“ During their time at the Middle School we are trying to help our students pair their interests and aptitudes with careers that exist,” said Bianca Goodwin, also a counselor at the Middle School.
“ When I was in school, career exploration didn’ t happen until college,” adds Goodwin.“ We’ re starting that process early so that students can better select their courses at the High School and give them realistic expectations of what career options are available.”