I teach the course “Personal, Career, and School Developmental Skills,” which is designed to assist in preparing high school students with the soft and life skills practices needed to prepare them for future careers and further education. While learning the skills and practicing is extremely important in laying the foundation for success, the implementation of MyCareerShines, powered by Kuder® has proven to be the missing link my students needed.
Whether it was after completing the career assessments that gave students insight to career paths aligned with unspoken passions, or when they learned how to explore, compare, and contrast educational costs, or maybe when they gained the ability to seek employment opportunities according to “trending up or down” job feature, the impact of MyCareerShines has resulted in many aha moments for my students.
Below are a few student reflections from our last training and workshop session. Below them, you’ll find my “Planning for the Future” activity. It’s designed for students who access Kuder Navigator® via the MyCareerShines website, but it can be modified for your own students and setting.
A 17-year-old junior interested in the art and law fields but undecided about her future plan …
“MyCareerShines has helped me in so many ways. It’s helped me explore different career options, discover programs, and it’s helped me learn about myself. This website will be very useful to me because I can find scholarships and opportunities that I may need for the future.”
A 17-year-old junior who was confused and undecided …
“This really helped me open up my mind and explore new ideas. This showed me a variety of things that I can focus on two career paths simultaneously if I want. It motivated me to get my act together and makes me excited about my future.”
An 18-year-old senior interested in law enforcement …
“I discovered I could find out a lot about several different types of job choices, salaries, and which jobs were trending. I didn’t know that my speaking Spanish could be such an asset as well.”
An 18-year-old senior and former athlete who planned on an athletic career until he injured himself …
“After finishing the career assessment, I was so surprised that the outcome showed that I could be headed for a career in human services. I never imagined this but have always enjoyed all of the volunteer and mentoring activities I did to gather community service points for graduation. I always sought out those types of gigs just because I figured I might as well enjoy my time while gaining service hours. Working with kids was fun. but I never imagined I might find a possible career path this way.”
The “Planning for the Future” activity download below is designed for students who access Navigator via the MyCareerShines website. It’s a fillable PDF, so feel free to modify it for your students by changing out the system name and URL to adapt it to your own setting.
About the Author
Angel Schmiedt is a Workplace Essentials Teacher at Miami Jackson Senior High School in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools district in Florida.
