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Career Exploration

I work with middle and high school students to outline their high school plans.  We spend time on career exploration, personality profiles and college and career planning. 

Each fall the 8th graders travel to the Otsego Area Occupational Center for their annual Career Expo.   Each student chooses five different occupation programs to visit.  This is a great way to begin to expose our students to the other educational and career options open to them in the future. 

In the 10th grade students begin to seriously investigate career options.  Sophomores may choose to visit the Occupational Center to visit two programs of interest.  This visit usually takes place in February.   If students opt to attend a Career Tech. Ed program during their junior year, they must return an application in early March. 

The English Department and Student Services department work together during the 3rd quarter on career awareness.  All sophomores take the Pre-Act test. For additional information on this test you can visit their website at:  

http://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/PreACT_WhyTake.pdf

This test is a practice test for the ACT exam.  The test also lets you know if you're on track for college.  It points out your academic strengths and areas you need to improve.  The test also includes an interest inventory to help students discover how their personality type can be matched to a particular career area.  Finally, it connects you with more colleges interested in you. 

All sophomores have the opportunity to participate in a job shadowing experience in the month of April/May.  This has proved to be a valuable experience for our students.  Students have the opportunity to find out the ins and outs of a particular job.  Some students come away thrilled at the experience or dismayed that the job is not what they thought it was.  Either way, it is an important part of our students discovering who they are and what they want to become.