Pathways & Possibilities Day

Tomorrow is Kilbourne's "Pathways and Possibilities" Day and I am so excited for it! During lunch periods all students will have the opportunity to interact with dozens of career professionals to learn about alternative pathways or possibilities for your future. 

We have intentionally targeted inviting job representatives that do not typically require a 4-year degree in order to work in the profession. You might wonder why. Well, there is so much time and attention spent in helping students look at 4-year colleges that we want to make sure that ALL students are getting support even if continuing on to a traditional college isn't in their plan. But it is more than that. There are a lot of jobs that you can get a certificate or other credentialling and be able to begin working where you will make more money than you would in just the typical high school diploma jobs.

My niece, Carly, is a perfect example of this option. Carly is a senior at the University of Kentucky. During the summer between her freshman and sophomore years of college she got 2 certificates - one in phlebotomy (drawing people's blood) and one to be a nursing tech (CNA). Then, from her sophomore through senior years of college she has worked part time at the UK Medical Center making far more money (and requiring way less hours of her) than she would have earned if she worked at a restaurant or store. Even more importantly, this clinical experience helped Carly have an even more impressive application when she was applying to med school. Let's be honest, did she want to be a phlebotomist or nursing tech for the rest of her life? No. Are those great career paths for some people? Absolutely! But it still was an important part of Carly's journey and has opened up more great opportunities for her in the future.

My hope is that EVERY student will take a few minutes out of your lunch periods to walk through the tables which will be set up in the commons and hallways to talk with the different career professionals. You never know about the various jobs that might peak your interest. Perhaps you will find something that will be a great pathway for your future or there might be jobs that can give you better paying possibilities. At the very least, please take a moment as you walk past our guests to say Thank you to them for giving their time to come and share with all of us!

It's Still Work

There is a famous Confuscious quote, "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life." I suspect many of you have heard it. Confuscious is a famous philosopher and far smarter than me, but I have to tell you, I think he got it wrong with this quote.

I absolutely LOVE my job, but I work incredibly hard at it. In fact, because I love it so much I probably pour even more of my time, energy and effort into what I do each day. I have a part-time job that I also love. I can assure you - they both require hard work, time and dedication. But, they are both incredibly rewarding and meaningful. My guess is that was probably the point Confuscious was trying to make. The reality is that as human beings, we can endure almost any circumstance if we feel the end outcome will be worth it.

The reason I am even talking about this though is that I think there are a LOT of high school students (and probably some adults) who struggle trying to figure out what they want to do in life and are constantly searching for the job that they will love so that they don't have to work. And I believe that is setting you up for failure. Find a job that you will be good at, that you will feel you can contribute and use your personal gifts and talents to benefit others and pursue it with everything you have inside of you. But know that there will still be days or at least parts of the job that will most definitely be struggles and feel like hard, demanding work. (And even work that you don't enjoy.) Adjusting that expectation can change everything because if you are able to go into the work world with the awareness that you won't love every part of your job and that there will be hard days that you dread (and yes, I can assure you there will be plenty of both), then you will be far less likely to beat yourself up and fall into the mind trap that there must be some other job out there that will be better for you - that you won't feel like work.

There is already so much stress and pressure that you experience as high school students, adding the extra level of stress that you must find the PERFECT job that you love is a pressure you don't need to add. We have so many career exploration opportunities for you and I want you to do them all, but I also want you to understand that you are far from done learning and growing. You will find and explore new paths ahead of you and all of it will contribute to you finding your right place in this world. So try to take the pressure off and enjoy the learning process.

For now, start thinking ahead a little bit. For students in all grades, do you have plans for Spring Break? That would be a great time for you to head out and make college visits, but they are also ideal days to ask a neighbor, friend, or extended family member if you could spend a day shadowing them to learn more about what they do each day. The summer is also a great time to try to get some experience out shadowing and learning about what some of the job possibilities are that exist in the world today so you can start now thinking about what experiences you might like to observe. My hope is you will ask the people you are spending time with what they love about their jobs, what they don't like, and if they feel like they work hard at what they do... because I suspect you will find that in every job there is definitely a LOT of work involved!

Roadtrip Nation

When writing this blog, I don't always do themes because I tend to focus on whatever questions are coming to us as counselors at that time. But this week I want to spend some time talking about careers.

It can feel impossibly hard to imagine what you'd like to be when you grow up when there are so many jobs in the world that you know nothing about. It is part of what makes exploring options and learning about various careers so exciting. I will acknowledge that the sheer quantity of opportunities and avenues that you can pursue can be overwhelming, but it can also be energizing when you find a job that sparks your interest and excites you to learn more.

There are a lot of different resources students can use to try to learn about careers. Roadtrip Nation is one of those. You can sign up for a free account and then access tons of career information. Through the Start your Career Path option you will be able to select fields of interest and then an area that aligns with your values and it will give you information about careers that might be of interest for you to learn more about and as you explore you can continue to refine your searches.

Your future path will be yours and yours alone, so try to embrace the exploration with an open mind and a sense of curiosity. You have a bright future ahead and we need difference makers in our world!

Socratic Society

Last Friday morning, 24 Kilbourne students were inducted into the Socratic Society. Students are selected for the Socratic Society based upon their display of the Socratic Core Virtues - scholarship, lifelong learning, compassion, integrity, and personal effort. Students are only eligible to receive this award once throughout their entire high school career. 

Congratulations to the students recognized (alphabetically): Adam Al Kharyo, Finn Barker, Ryan Burke, Tyra Butler, Madisyn Genheimer, Malachi Green, Mayrin Gutierrez Gallegos, Kevin Henderson, Isabel Ludsin, Quinn McGlone, Marisabel Morales, Caitlyn Ohlemacher, Andrea Pelcastre, Anna Popkie, Afia Prempeh, Ayden Rambo, Luke Renneker, Matthew Richey, Liam Ryan, Michal Scott, Avery Tate, Brooke Todd, Camdyn Vantell, and McKenzie Wade.  Congratulations to each of you! We are proud of you!

Junior Seminars

 

Thursday kicks off our Junior Seminars and I am really excited about the programming. On designated Thursdays, junior students are invited to attend brief, in-depth, workshops on a particular topic. Students can decide which workshops interest them and come to just those sessions. The seminars will be held in Room 201 from 8:15-8:35am just before the start of school so I hope you'll grab your breakfast or coffee and come to school 20 minutes early to participate in the sessions that interest you most!

March 12th: Choosing careers/ majors

March 26th: Using AI effectively in college applications

April 16th: Recommendation letters

April 30th: Creating a solid college list

Save those dates and we hope to see many of you Thursday morning!

Tomorrow's SAT Schedule

We are on a VERY different bell schedule tomorrow!

Freshmen, Sophomores and Seniors - you will be functioning on a late-start schedule tomorrow. This means that you get to sleep in and relax a little bit in the morning. If you ride a bus, your bus will pick you up  90 minutes later than normal. If you walk or drive to school, you can determine what time you want to arrive just be sure to make it to school in enough time to be able to get to your 5th period class at 12:25pm. As I mentioned, with late start buses running 1.5 hours later than normal, this means that if you ride a bus that will likely mean you will arrive to school around 10:10am and you'll have that time until the start of classes to study, eat lunch, and hang out in the Aux Gym.

Juniors - you will ride the bus at the normal time and arrive to school like every other day. You will then report to your assigned testing location by 8:40am so that you can begin taking the SAT right away.  The test will conclude in time for you to have a break for lunch before the start of classes.

And then everyone (9th through 12th grade) will proceed to afternoon classes with the following bell schedule:

• 5th Period - 12:25 - 1:05
• 6th Period - 1:10 - 1:50
• 7th Period - 1:55 - 2:35
• 8th Period - 2:40 - 3:20

I also have a few SAT Testing reminders for the juniors:  This test is an official SAT so you are strictly bound to all of the restrictions and requirements set forth by SAT.  Testing will begin promptly at 8:40am so you will need to report to your assigned rooms (check your email for location assignment).  Please be sure to bring your district issued chromebook (fully charged!), your Student ID card, and, if you want, a calculator.  And I would also suggest that you bring a watch.  Cell phones are NOT allowed to be on in the testing room at all.  You should have already completed the pre-registration steps so that you're all set to test. Good luck tomorrow!  You will do great!

4th Quarter Begins

What is 1 small step that you could take that would help you to be a better student?  Now that we are in the 4th and final quarter of the school year, that is a question I hope you will pause to ask yourself and try to think about what you can either continue doing or start doing differently to finish the year out strong.

The reality is that school is your job and so reflecting on what you're doing and how it is helping to get you to where you want to be is important.  When I think about my students your individual strengths and struggles are so diverse.  Some students struggle to show up to school on time every day while others have great attendance.  Some students pick up on what teachers are saying when they just listen in class, but many others have to take detailed notes and write everything down.  Some students are great about getting work completed on time and turned in fully finished and others are continually confused when teachers ask for assignments to be submitted having never even realized something was assigned.

Today your 3rd quarter grades were do and so you and your parents can all log into Infinite Campus to get an idea of where you stand academically at the half-way point in the semester.  But I really do want you to forget the letter grades for a moment and think about yourself and the efforts and commitment you are showing in your classes. 

Can you do better?  If so, what can you try?  Want me to help hold you accountable, I am happy to if you come and let me know about your goals and plan to improve.  

Are you pleased with how things are going for you in classes?  That's awesome!  Be proud of your success and accomplishments.  Try to think back on what you think has helped you the most to have this success and make sure you consider how you can continue with that moving ahead.  Know that I'm also here to help celebrate those successes with you if you want to share with me what it is that you think has helped you most.

Finishing out this year strong is important and nothing is a lost cause because you still have half of the semester to go.  Use your resources and apply yourself.  You can do this!