Winning Futures – Inspiring and preparing youth to succeed through mentoring.

Posts Tagged ‘student needs’

To help students realize the importance of continuing education, try providing them with the information below.

Studies indicate that the more education one has the larger the paycheck. So!  “the more you learn the more you earn”. Listed below, are the average salaries American workers earn based on an education they have attained:

If you work for forty years, additional earnings can really add- up, just by staying in school and graduating high school.   Individual workers earn an average of $6,000 more per year or $240,000 more in their lifetimes. That is a quarter-million dollars just by finishing high school.

Add a two-year Associate Degree and the lifetime earnings jump to $480,000. Think about it… that’s a cool half-million dollars…just for finishing high school and going to college for two years.  As you can see, it is more than a high school dropout can earn in a lifetime.

“PLAY IT SMART”!   Do what you need to do to finish high school … dropping out is NOTan option. Then think about going to college.

**Source:
www.educationplanner.org

A great way to support students in career exploration is to show an interest!  A resourse used at Winning Futures to help students compare and learn more about their career interests is The Occupational Outlook Handbook website – http://www.bls.gov/oco/.

By providing information on careers, students will be better prepared to set their education goals!

Ways to use the Occupational Outlook Handbook site—

~To find out about a specific occupation or topic, use the Search
box that is on every page…you enter your search term in the box.
~To find out about the many occupations, browse through listings using the Occupation
link that is on the left side of each page.
~For a listing of all occupations in alphabetical order, go to the A-Z Index and select a letter.

My Winning Futures mentor is the definition of support system.  She was always motivating and inspiring not just our mentoring group, but everyone around her.  She has showed us that any future we desire is obtainable through hard work, education, and persistence.  She made me believe in myself.

-2011 Warren Mott High School Graduate

Before students can start working on a plan for their futures, they first need to evaluate where they are today.  All of us have both positive and negative assets.  To help improve the negative assets, it is important to first recognize what they are.  This can be done through a self-assessment.  Some example questions students can answer during a self-assessment are:

~What are some things I want to improve about myself
~My biggest challenges or things I worry about are
~I am most grateful for
~Things I like to do
~My friends would describe me as
~I would describe myself as
~The most positive people in my life are
~The most negative situations in my life are

Winning Futures mentors help students students evaluate these types of questions along with guiding them in setting new/realistic goals in the areas in which they wish to improve on.

Having guest speakers in a classroom can be a powerful experience for students.  It lets them see that successful adults have their own stories about how they overcome obstacles and struggles in their lives to help get them to where they are today.  Winning Futures welcomed Dennis Liegghio, Founder of KnowResolve, to speak to students in the program about how important relationship goals have been in his life.

Dennis writes, “I was 14 years old when I lost my father to suicide. Our last words were in anger. For the next ten years, I blamed myself for my Dad’s death and struggled with depression, self-destructive behavior and my own thoughts of suicide. In 2001, ten years after losing my father, I wrote a song called “No Resolve,” which helped me to start working through the anger and sadness that had held me captive for so long. I kept writing songs, started the Student Driver Band, and recorded an album.

My mom gave a copy of that album to Jean Larch, who runs a Survivors of Suicide support group in Macomb County, Michigan. Jean invited me to visit the group and perform “No Resolve.” The experience was so powerful and overwhelming that it ignited a passion to help spread the word and raise awareness, and was the inspiration for starting this organization in early 2007.

I was invited to tell my story to a group of middle school students, and within a year of that first presentation, KnowResolve had become my life’s work.  Since our humble beginnings in 2007, we have spoken nationally to more than 24,000 teens and young adults about the importance of hope, connection and community.

Vision: It wasn’t very long ago that I was so empty and hopeless that I didn’t believe there was anything worth living for. I kept my walls up, and kept everyone in my life at a safe distance – hiding my insecurities and misery behind self-destructive behavior. I numbed myself to the world around me. I was convinced that I would die young, and I did my best to self-destruct.

My life changed when I realized and accepted three 3 simple,
fundamental truths:

• Sometimes life is unfair, and sometimes it just sucks
• The world doesn’t owe me anything
• Nobody is coming to save me – my happiness is my responsibility

Over time, with help from friends, family, therapy, books and expressing myself through music, I began to feel purpose, peace, balance, and even joy again. I discovered that yes, we are the sum of our upbringings and circumstances — but we have the power and the CHOICE to change, to grow, and to overcome. Hope and happiness are possible, no matter where or what you come from.

For more information visit Knowresolve.org

A great way to engage students in the world of work is to take them on hands-on company tours. This allows students to see firsthand how a company is run, each person’s responsibility and role within a company, and how those jobs work together to form the whole.

Winning Futures students traveled to Fitzpatrick Manufacturing, a CNC machine shop and custom manufacturer. This annual tour gave the students an eyewitness account of some of the most innovative processes and operations that the manufacturing industry has to offer.

The tour was sponsored by Mike Fitzpatrick, President and Owner of Fitzpatrick Manufacturing in Sterling Heights. The goal of the tour was to educate students about the manufacturing industry and to expose them to the variety of jobs within manufacturing. Students were debriefed and given demonstrations on all the various jobs within an industrial workplace from the front desk to shipping and receiving. Students also learned how each department works together in overall company operations.

For most people the thought of going on a job interview is not a pleasant one.  For students it can be even worse causing a lot of uneasiness and anxiety.  Helping them to become prepared and knowing what to expect can help them to relax and gain confidence.

With the help of an experienced adult, students should draft answers to the most common interview questions and practice speaking them out loud. They also should read up on the company with which you will be interviewing and prepare some questions of your own. This lets the interviewer know that you are truly interested in the company and the position.

Although every interviewer is different and questions vary from industry to industry, there are some questions that are common across the board. Reading through the following questions and developing answers is a good place to start in preparation. Once this is done, practice makes perfect! Experts recommend that you spend at least three hours preparing for each interview.  Below are a list of common question written by Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com.

Why should we hire you?
Here’s the chance to really sell yourself. You need to briefly and succinctly lay out your strengths, qualifications and what you can bring to the table. Be careful not to answer this question too generically, however. Nearly everyone says they are hardworking and motivated. Set yourself apart by telling the interviewer about qualities that are unique to you. 

Click here to download more questions and answers.  This is a handout Winning Futures uses with mentors and teachers in our high school programs.

Winning Futures works with high school students to help them prepare for job interviews. This is done in a series of sessions to allow the students time to learn the techniques and practice them with their career coach/mentor. The first interview stage (that should not be over looked) is getting ready.

Students are taught that in preparation:

*They will need to have with them:
-Resume (even if one was already submitted)
-Social Security Card
-Drivers license or certified copy of birth certificate
-Samples of work if the job is technical
-Names and addresses of three personal references
-Thank-you cards for follow-up immediately after the interview

*They should learn about the organization:
-Products and services provided
-Office location
-Growth potential
Information on the company can be found by getting a brochure, looking the company up on the internet, asking someone in the industry, getting a copy of the companies annual report.

*Mentors discuss with students proper dress attire of an interview. Although they may feel the most comfortable in jeans and tennis shoes, it is always important to dress to suit the interviewer.

*And the final segment in the preparation stage is rehearsing answers to popular questions asked by interviewers. Practicing interview questions with an adult can help ease anxiety while in the interview. Some common interview questions asked could be:
-Why would you like to do this work? Do you have any experience in this field?
-Why would you like to work with our company?
-Are you willing to travel or relocate?
-What do you do in your spare time? Social? Sports? Hobbies? Interests?
-What are you looking for in a job?
-Do you have transportation to work?
-What do you consider your strengths and weaknesses?
-Why should I hire you?
-Where do you see yourself five years from now?

If students are well prepared for an interview and keep a positive attitude, they will eventually find a job that utilizes their strengths and abilities and they that enjoy doing!

As a Winning Futures Job Coach at Fitzgerald High School, I was able to see first hand how the program benefited the students. The sessions were excellent and I enjoyed training the students. I believe it helped a lot of them accomplish their work goals. After going over interviewing procedures and role playing interviewing sessions, a few landed jobs!

~Denise Kelly, Winning Futures Job Coach

Fitzgerald Public Schools utilizes the Winning Futures workbooks and trainings through their WIA grant for in-school and out-of-school youth (granted by the Macomb/St. Clair Workforce Development Board through MichiganWorks!).  All of their adult job coaches were trained in the curriculum and implement it throughout the summer and school year.

Last week, I spoke at the National “Youth At-Risk conference through Georgia Southern University.  Educators and youth serving professionals, this is a conference to have on your list for 2012.  They had very innovative workshops with realistic activities and programs you can immediately implement.  My workshop focused on creating and implementing mentoring programs for agencies who work with at-risk youth. http://ceps.georgiasouthern.edu/conted/nationalyouthatrisk.html