Careers for a brave new world Freshmen get a glimpse of the future job scene

By KRISTI ALBERTSON/Daily Inter Lake

Generations of students have gone to school to learn the three R's. And while today's students still learn the basics of reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic, many schools are adding three more R's to the curriculum: rigor, relevance and relationship.

Ninth-graders at Flathead and Glacier high schools experienced the latter two Thursday and Friday at a freshman career fields fair held at both schools.

Students spoke with businessmen and women from the community, which gave them the opportunity to build relationships and see the relevance of the courses they're taking in high school.

More than 80 professionals in a variety of occupations addressed students during the fair, sharing the ins and outs of their jobs and fielding questions from the freshmen.

Many professionals also offered advice.

Michelle Skaletski-Boyd, a freelance writer and speaker, told students to pursue the things they're passionate about, even if their friends and family discourage their dreams.

"You're going to hear all this negative naysay stuff," she said, adding that people often start believing the negative feedback. "Once you get a bunch of people around you saying 'No, that's not what you want to do,' that's it. It's over."

Not all students know yet what career they want to pursue. When a student asked her a question about education, Skaletski-Boyd asked what she wanted to do.

The student paused a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know."

"Dig deep," Skaletski-Boyd urged her. "What's your first response? What do you want to do?"

Chances are, the answers to that question will change many times over the next several years. Some U.S. Labor Department statistics suggest people will change jobs an average of 10 times in the two decades following high school graduation.

In Kalispell's high schools, students have the opportunity to explore jobs in six different career fields: arts and communication, business and management, engineering and industrial technologies, health and related services, agriculture and natural resources, and social and human services.

This semester, in the newly instituted 21st century literacies class, freshmen have learned the basics of those fields and looked at the classes they can take in each area. They'll incorporate that information into the five- and 10-year plans they will develop before the end of the month.

The five-year plan, which will take them through their first year after high school, is designed to help students think about their high school careers more intentionally by giving them a goal to work toward.

It will help them select classes that will help them reach that goal, rather than choosing courses at random, said DeAnn Thomas, the career center director at both high schools.

"They need to start mapping and doing something," she said, "rather than taking the dart-board approach."

But neither the fair nor the career cluster curriculum are intended to force students to pick and stick to a career path, Thomas said.

"We are not pushing kids into careers," she said.

Exposing students to different career fields, however, and helping them think about their futures will help them recognize the skills they will need to pursue any job.

Students heard about "universal skills" from most job fair presenters, Thomas said. Universal skills, she explained, include having a positive attitude, being reliable and waking up ready to work each morning.

Regardless of the career they choose, students will need these skills to get a job after high school, she said.

"We're in a very new place worldwide, competitively," she said.

A quarter of today's students will need to know a second language to do their jobs, she said. Five years from now, a quarter of jobs will be virtual jobs.

The district's career cluster curriculum is looking at "things we can do to prepare students to be ready for that kind of job market," Thomas said.

Kalispell Public Schools' career cluster curriculum is unique in the state. District representatives attended national conferences and examined other schools that have implemented a national career-cluster program, Thomas said, and cherry-picked the most successful elements of each.

"We've tried to pick the best of the best," she said.

A few Montana schools have implemented pieces of the nationwide program, Thomas said, but only Kalispell has adopted a total curriculum. The district doesn't have all the kinks worked out yet, she added, but it is off to a solid start.

"We're just getting started," she said. "We really made a good initial effort."

So far, Kalispell's curriculum has made a big impression on the rest of the state. Other districts are examining the way

the curriculum works; more than 300 people attended the Montana Career Clusters Conference in Kalispell last June, and representatives from Great Falls attended the career fields fair.

In the Flathead, the impression has been favorable as well. The business community has been very supportive of the district's new direction, and many professionals helped shape the curriculum. Parents and students seem to appreciate it, too, Thomas said.

One of the biggest benefits is the broad spectrum of career opportunities students can explore. At the career fair alone, students were exposed to more than 50 jobs they can pursue in the Flathead Valley.

"It lets the kids know they're not limited," Dianne Gamma said.

Gamma, a GEAR UP liaison for Marion School, was at the Flathead fair with a former Marion student. That student and other freshmen benefit from being exposed to so many different career options when they're young, she said.

"It lets them know they can challenge themselves," she said. "They have a lot of options."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.