March Blog

I know that I will never be a writer but I do know that when you present any information, you have to have a target audience in mind. Most months my blog is targeted at adults (parents & staff). I generally do this as I understand that most students will not take the time to read the principal's blog. But this month’s blog has information for students, I hope that parents and teachers will share.

A question that I ask way too often and I also assume that students don’t want to hear is, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” This is a very difficult question to answer. Very few teenagers have a set answer to this question. Some twenty-year olds and even some thirty and forty-year olds cannot answer. A fact to think about, “The World Economic Forum estimates that 65 percent of children today will end up in careers that don't even exist yet.”

I fear that some students and parents feel that educators are trying to choose careers/jobs for students by asking them to do IPS’s (Individual Plans of Study). I remember when our staff introduces “Career Pathways” in the early 90’s, a parent said to me, “You want my 8^th grader to decide what she wants to do for the rest of her life.”

Educators do not want to determine careers. We want to make sure that students are aware of opportunities as well as to know how to research for more opportunities.

KCP (Kansas Career Pipeline) is a tool that we make available to all students. Students have the opportunity to complete interest inventories that may help them to learn about careers, but students are in no way limited to suggested career areas.

Another career exploration opportunity that we provide at EHS is our Annual Future’s Fair. On Monday, April 9, from 8 AM to 11 AM, EHS will host a Future’s Fair. Each teacher is responsible to invite speakers from various career areas. Students will have the opportunity to attend 4 sessions of 45 minutes each. This means that students could learn about over 120 different careers. The speakers are asked to address attendees for approximately 30 minutes and leave 15 minutes for questions.

The grid for speakers is not complete and of course is subject to change. The spreadsheet as of Saturday, March 31 is below.

Parents and teachers, please take time to share this information with students. Students the exact job that you take may not exist yet, but it is never to early to start learning about and exploring opportunities.