Hello Kougar Area,
For the past couple of weeks, I have talked about the activities of spring in schools on the administrative side: hiring and state testing. Thirdly, this series will talk about career development and how we attempt to help our students down the correct path for future success. The need for summer jobs, skill development, and career exploration in our young teens is essential for their long-term success. At Kadoka Area, we address this in a few ways within our school and extracurricular activities.
Not including our CTE courses, which have been extolled in previous columns, encouragement for summer development is an integral part of the education game, playing a crucial role in developing skill ls in the later years of high school. First and foremost, our curriculum involves our students in their first high school year in a course, Career Explorations, to aid that process. This class builds around the South Dakota CTE Career Clusters and hopes to start the process of students recognizing and inquiring about the strengths and weaknesses they have in the careers they see in the current economy. Many students will enter the job market for the first time during the summer after their ninth-grade year (age 14 through 16). Our students are allowed to apply the work of their classes directly in their time over the summer and usually see good results in landing a position. Re- search shows that many youths who apply for summer jobs will usually successfully find one be- cause of their affordability relative to more experienced workers. We hope this beginning training in skill recognition help students build confidence as they come of age in the working world.
Next is the support of our extracurriculars and our coaches. Al- most all of our coaches have some summer program that comes in spring meetings for their sport or activity. Future Farmers of America continue to develop range and weed science skills that make them so successful as a club. Sports teams will seek out the competition, and weight rooms will be constantly available. Those that put in the constant effort to improve will be able to add their success on the court to their resume, and it will stand out.
I was involved in coaching college basketball in my previous life and our graduates who entered professional schools such as medical, optometry, and dentistry did not have perfect GPAs. Still, they did have a resume that included success in their activity, and in all cases, they were granted entry on the first try. The automatic entry doesn’t speak against our professional schools but speaks to skills that come with constant success in activities. This impression is positive when coupled with a victory in the classroom for those crafting post-secondary student bodies.
Colonel Sanders and his famous chicken didn’t come from thin air. Sam Walton’s discount retail ideas weren’t his first job. It came from recognizing strengths and honing in on what they did to finally find a calling in life. Through our CTE courses, our entry-level encouragement of skill recognition, and our extracurricular commitment, we hope to see a significant payoff in our workforce as the decades pass. We can look back and know our student has a better life and a better track because of the programs we have in place.
In support of the Kougars,
Robert Lukens