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I have seen many children growing up in the 21st century inner city who show much dismay for their occupational future. It is my belief that their career path does not have to dead end at high school as a drop out or barely passing to graduate. For some, school is hard enough for a variety of reasons. Being able to see a successful future beyond the difficult path they are currently on would seem impossible or somewhat like a fairy tale. When in reality success is truly in arms reach for any and everyone. As educators we have to find what motivates each student to learn. The scholastic system’s number one priority is academic success, as it should be. But what I find is career achievement is greatly lacking. Students need to know what career avenues their academics can take them in life.
It is my hypothesis that if children are shown what they can become up close and personal, face to face, eye to eye with people
in careers they find interesting or never knew existed, their purpose for coming to school will become more valuable. Once children become serious about their academics, test scores and grades will improve building better self-confidence and improving their social/personal state. This will then achieve the school counselor’s purpose to become a constructive advocate in the development of a child’s social/personal, career and academic life.
The “Show Me My Future” project is a career guidance curriculum and will be designed for each school level: elementary, middle, and high. Surveys will be edited accordingly to meet age appropriate understanding. Careers will be presented to the students during morning/evening announcements monthly. In addition to the announcements, informational handouts about the careers will be accessible in the counselor’s office. After each job has been presented a video and/or representative will make a presentation to an assembled student body of interest highlighting the importance of education for the specific career, job requirements, duties, required skills, etc. A career roadmap will also be available to students. The career roadmap will show early steps students can take toward building a career path to achieve their career goal.
It is my hypothesis that if children are shown what they can become up close and personal, face to face, eye to eye with people
in careers they find interesting or never knew existed, their purpose for coming to school will become more valuable. Once children become serious about their academics, test scores and grades will improve building better self-confidence and improving their social/personal state. This will then achieve the school counselor’s purpose to become a constructive advocate in the development of a child’s social/personal, career and academic life.
The “Show Me My Future” project is a career guidance curriculum and will be designed for each school level: elementary, middle, and high. Surveys will be edited accordingly to meet age appropriate understanding. Careers will be presented to the students during morning/evening announcements monthly. In addition to the announcements, informational handouts about the careers will be accessible in the counselor’s office. After each job has been presented a video and/or representative will make a presentation to an assembled student body of interest highlighting the importance of education for the specific career, job requirements, duties, required skills, etc. A career roadmap will also be available to students. The career roadmap will show early steps students can take toward building a career path to achieve their career goal.