Practitioner Resources

Support Students with College & Career Planning

See links and resources for college & career month (and beyond!) that you can use to support learning and explorations in your schools and classrooms. 

Quick Links

Access college and career planning lesson plans

Essential resources for students and practitioners

Find local & regional college financing resources 

Resources & Activities by Themed Week

Week 1: Exploring My Skills & Interests Week

College Exploration


Career Exploration


Activities

For lower elementary students: Have students discuss and learn about their path (graduate elementary school, middle school, and high school) to college and what they might need to pack for it. 

For elementary students: Students get to create their own fantasy college. 

For elementary students: Start a class discussion about how in order to reach our goal of going to college, we must make smaller immediate goals to build up to the big ones. Students write SMART academic goals with a plan of action and an accomplish date. 

For elementary students: Have 3 essay questions from the Common App for your students to choose to write about. Depending on the level you may need to modify the questions. Be sure to highlight the importance of choosing the question they can write the most passionately about and with clear detail.  

For all students: Download a copy of the Common Application (used to apply to over 700 colleges and universities nationwide) and lead an age-appropriate discussion about different parts of the application. For example, look at essay questions, basic requirements, and talk about the need to include references.  

For all students: Students conduct research to look up famous people, the college they went to, and what they studied. Then use the research to create a “Guess where I went to college” flap board. 

There is a college for everyone! Typically, high school students create three lists of schools: target schools (past applicants’ grades, SAT/ACT scores are similar to you), reach schools (that are less likely to admit you than target schools, but are worth trying for), and safety schools (which are more likely to admit you and will serve as a safety net in case your other options don’t work out). 


Week 2: College & Career Readiness and Entrepreneurship Week

For all students: Download a copy of the Common Application (used to apply to over 700 colleges and universities nationwide) and lead an age-appropriate discussion about different parts of the application. For example, look at essay questions, basic requirements, and talk about the need to include references.  

For all students: Students conduct research to look up famous people, the college they went to, and what they studied. Then use the research to create a “Guess where I went to college” flap board. 

For all students: Organize a webinar to inform girls about Mass TLC’s annual Technovation competition (http://masstlcef.org/technovation/)

For all students: Invite manufacturing/engineering students from a local vocational-technical program to put on a robotics demonstration. 

For elementary and middle school: Depending on the level of students, ask students the following questions: why is going to college important to me? How do I think going to college will affect my life? Who are the adults in my life that can help me go to college? What questions do I still have about going to college? Have whole class discussions about students’ responses.

For middle and high school students: Explore US News & World Report, Businessweek, Forbes, and other college ranking lists to learn about which institutions might be best for you and your family.

For middle and high school: Watch First Generation, an award-winning documentary following the lives of 4 students who want to be the first generation in their families to attend college. 

For all students: Invite a current college student, a parent, or the principal to come to discuss college with your students. 

For elementary and middle school students: Brainstorm different careers they could be interested in. Have students explore the Occupational Outlook Handbook from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to learn the requirements for it and how much money they could typically make. Have them make posters to display their findings and hang around your class and hallways. Students can organize their thoughts on the template. 

For middle and high school students: Use the College Month infographic created by the Private Industry Council to walk students through all the things they need to consider when planning for their future. 

For middle and high school students: Explore the Massachusetts Career Information System (MassCIS) online, which provides career cluster inventory and skill assessments to help students match their interests and skills with career paths. 

For middle and high school students: Explore US News & World Report’s Top 10 lists to start making a personal list of reach, target, and likely schools to apply to.

For all students: Lead a conversation (tailored to their level) about translating passions into careers. For example, if you love science class and helping people, what are different careers that align with medicine? You could become a surgeon, genetic counselor, phlebotomist, nurse practitioner, obstetrician… For each of these career paths, what type of degree would you need? What salary do different jobs within the medical field pay? What are the job growth projections for those different careers and why does that matter?

For all students: Lead an activity (tailored to their level) on figuring out how much the lifestyle they desire will cost. For example, how much does it cost to buy a house? How much does it cost to buy a car? How much does it cost to take a family of four on a vacation? Connect the idea of affording the lifestyle they want with earning money in whatever career they choose.

For all students: All faculty, staff, administrators, and paraprofessionals can create a “College Corner” in classrooms, offices, and other rooms in the school. Make a corner that is filled with items from your college experience (i.e. pictures from studying abroad, old course catalogs, diplomas, syllabi, textbooks, pennants, posters, graded essay, graduation tassel, athletic jerseys, college ID card, etc). 

For all students: On a map of the United States, pinpoint and label the locations of colleges. 

Week 3: STEAM Week

STEAM Week in Boston is October 16th-21st! This is a great opportunity to explore careers In the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math fields. Check out the links below for more information.


The Bloomberg Arts Internship (BAI) is an arts-focused summer internship in Baltimore, Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia that provides high school interns with paid work experience at cultural institutions and organizations along with work readiness and college preparation support. Through this program, Bloomberg Philanthropies connects students with summer internships at local arts organizations and helps them to acquire the tools they need to succeed in high school, college, and as future adults and community leaders.

Week 4: College Affordability & Financial Literacy Week

Tuesday, October 24th is FAFSA Prep Day In BPS!

The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) typically opens on October 1st of each year for the following academic school year.  This year the 2024-2025 FAFSA form is being revised and will not be available until sometime in December 2023.  College and Career Month Is a great time to learn about the FAFSA and begin gathering the documents you will need to apply. Students may qualify for thousands in federal financial aid. Visit www.studentaid.gov to get started. Visit the Paying for College and the FAFSA page for helpful resources and videos regarding the application process and more.

Things to Know & Do this Week

College CAN be affordable!

For teachers and practitioners working with: