Why NHS Students Will Complete This School Year Career-Ready

The 2019-2020 school year marks Doctor Galligan’s second year as Principal of Norwood High School, and already new initiatives concerning students’ career skills are being designed and executed in hopes that students will graduate from NHS being exceptionally prepared for their post-secondary career paths. Throughout the 2018-2019 school year itself, Galligan has created a career-building academic atmosphere in which students are pushed to develop skills used in most to all occupations sought out for after high school. As a result of this built atmosphere, NHS students are at an advantage in terms of transitioning to their future vocations.

The way in which Galligan perceives high school education is simple: valuable, hands-on experience of career skills and situations. This is what inspired his idea of the “Portrait of a Norwood Graduate”, an organized and modernized “vision of what students attending Norwood Public Schools--not just the high school--should be skilled with by the time they graduate,” Dr. Galligan states. This vision includes what is called the “5 C’s”, which include collaborators, communicators, citizens, creators, and critical thinkers.

The purpose of this initiative is for instructors to move less toward teaching students memorization and standardized learning methods, and more towards teaching vital and necessary strengths that students will utilize for the rest of their lives. 

One of the ways in which Dr. Galligan plans to continue to provide career skills and opportunities this year is through holding not just one career week, but two. “Our first one in November, and then at least one more later in the school year,” Dr. Galligan claims. Last year, Norwood High School’s first ever career week consisted of students being given a list of options for career paths of interest on Monday (for which they could choose 3), and then that following Friday being able to speak and listen to a person of each chosen profession, which allows for a better understanding as to how they went from a high school student to a professional in the field that they’re in.

The goal of these new career weeks is to give an advantage to NHS students in terms of career-readiness, whether that be a career that requires college or one that doesn’t. To get students started, Galligan organized a ‘career fair’ on the previous career week’s Friday in which employers around Norwood who were hiring set up stands around the gym for students to apply to work for, getting their foot in the door for more job opportunities. This tradition will be continued in this year’s career week.

Although an abundance of opportunities exist at NHS for upperclassmen to be at an advantage in the healthcare field before college, The Healthcare Innovation Pathway is a brand-new noteworthy initiative that has been introduced for the 2019-2020 freshmen. This 4-year elective that was offered to 25 freshmen allows students involved to give up their study periods in order to be intensely trained through online courses, so that they may be thoroughly prepared to work in the high-demand industry of healthcare. These students work with Mr. Burrill, a business teacher at NHS, and Mrs. Jean-Noel, career specialist at NHS.

Following their 4 years of healthcare education, these students will “receive technical certifications...they’re OSHA 10 which is a strong technical certification,” states Galligan, for their time and effort placed in the field. Once put into a resume, these certificates will put said students at a much higher advantage in terms of being accepted into their desired schools in order to pursue healthcare careers.

Another exclusive opportunity that was introduced this year is the A World of Difference initiative. Led by Ms. Lowe-McLaurin, Mrs. Connolly, and Mr. Reyes, this organization will consist of 25-30 sophomore and junior student leaders who are intended to carry the task of building the cultural proficiency of staff and students.

“The Norwood community is a really diverse place, and that’s an asset, that’s a strength,” states Galligan. The creators of the organization want students and staff members to be able to appreciate and value that diversity, and what better way to provide knowledge to other students than by having them be taught by their peers. These ‘student leaders’ will be trained intensely to handle situations concerning racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice, so much so that the training will replace 3 school days, hence the reason why A World of Difference is not just a club. After receiving their training, these 25-30 students will pass their knowledge to 9th grade students in hopes that they pass that same knowledge on when they become upperclassman student leaders.

Not only will being a part of this program urge students to better understand and relate to their peers, but it will allow them to become more educated in terms of privilege and prejudice in the workplace. Being an unbiased and culturally-educated co-worker is just as much of a valuable skill as being qualified in terms of past experience. So, being a part of this program is yet another advantage for NHS students concerning career-readiness.

Now that Dr. Galligan has spent a year building a foundation for what he has planned, it is finally being executed. The Portrait of a Norwood Graduate, the Healthcare Innovation Pathway, and the A World of Difference program are the three goals among many that are driving the career-preparation standard at NHS this school year.