Careers from A to Z

                                                                   By Silas P. & Ms. Patek
    Hampton Elementary School is having a virtual career day this year.  Normally, the school has a career day where presenters come and speak to students in the classroom.  This year, the school wanted to do something virtual.  The school counselors decided to have presenters make videos that teachers could use with their students.

      “Teachers are using it in all different ways. Some teachers are giving it to students to do it independently, and other teachers are doing it as a class,” said Mrs. Lepley, one of the school counselors at Hampton. “There are activities that you can do and if you do them you can win a prize.”

   Since some students are still learning virtually and visitors are not allowed in the building, the school counselors needed to come up with a different approach to career day.  When Mrs. Lepley and the other counselor, Mrs. Dyer, were discussing options for career day, Mrs. Lepley remembered that she knew someone who was an author and someone who was a zookeeper and that gave them the idea for “Careers from A to Z.”  Mrs. Lepley and Mrs. Dyer sat down and made a list of possible careers and reached out to a lot of possible presenters.

    “Mrs. Dyer and I reached out to people we knew that had interesting careers. And then we also thought that we could invite people with different types of careers,” said Mrs. Lepley. “Some of the careers you need to go to college for and others you didn’t, so we wanted to have a variety.”

    They reached out to a lot of presenters in hopes of getting “Careers From A to Z,” however they did not get quite that many.

    “Twelve career presenters came to participate, we did ask a lot more, but those are the ones who were able to complete their videos on time,” Mrs. Lepley said.

 The goal of Hampton’s career day is to expose students to careers in their community.  Hampton wants its students to make connections between what they are learning now in school and their future careers.  In addition to career day, the counselors also focus on career exploration during their May counseling lessons.

     “Our lessons explore finding out your strengths and your interests and how to use those things to find a career,” Mrs. Lepley said.
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You can view the virtual careers until the end of the school year.