college and career planning Archives

Aug 09 2018

Middle and High School Career Explorations Play Activities

Materials:

Journal, marking pens, and artist materials for career reflection activities
Subscription to a career focused or professional association magazine (e.g. coding, STEM, writing, teaching, counseling, legal services, performing arts, youth development, service learning, construction, sports, business, architecture, and fashion)
Registration and participation in activities relevant to a specific passion or career (e.g. maker fair STEM fairs and competitions, science fairs, writing contests, performing arts contests and shows, family karaoke events, and sports recreation nights)
Participation and materials that support community service projects
Registration for online career explorations through a professional career association that supports youth

Aug 08 2018

Middle and High School Career Explorations Reading Activity

As our children start exploring various careers, you and your child can research together various career exploration websites by googling questions about specific careers. Included below are two educational articles that discuss the importance of having children consider and explore careers during their middle and high school years:

[Read more…]

Aug 07 2018

Career Explorations for Our Children

Throughout life, children aspire to become many different things when they grow up. One child may want to become a sanitation worker and recycle truck driver. Others dream of becoming a fireman, police woman, or teacher. From an early age, we can encourage our children to learn more about different types of careers and jobs by:

Taking our children to our jobs afterschool, in the evening, or on weekends
Encouraging our children to help us with various aspects of our job (i.e. sort different assignments for teachers, organize the trash and recyclables for the garbage collection and recycle centers, and conduct household fire safety checks)
Helping our children learn how to pursue specific career explorations through research, participation in early college courses, and engaging in relevant work experiences

[Read more…]

May 01 2018

Yikes! Now We Must Plan for Summer College

EJ has had an incredibly exciting and busy year as a college sophomore attending a university in the SF Bay Area. We have enjoyed our visits with him at school and during the winter break at home. EJ is now busy with his spring semester and taking a demanding course load.

He recently met with his advisor to plan his upper division courses for next year. EJ must complete a Chemistry Lab before he can achieve his Junior status. Additionally, the Chemistry Lab is a prerequisite for his next sequence of classes. [Read more…]

Apr 03 2018

Helping High School Students Prepare for Their Futures!

Yesterday, I met with our high school leadership team. We were discussing how to help our students prepare for a future career or goal. One colleague stated that we should teach our students autonomy. Another argued that we need to put family values first and help students grow with this focus. A third leader suggested that we needed to identify how those values might challenge a student’s future career and college success. The more we discussed this topic, the more I am convinced that we need to help students learn how to take care of themselves to ensure their future success. [Read more…]