College Summit

Author : Melissa Jones

College Career Connection: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Posted by: College Summit Education Posted date: Apr 13, 2011

This week, I came across an interesting article about a chain of corporate-sponsored entertainment centers called KidZania…

Topics: Peer Leadership and Youth Development

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This week, I came across an <a href="http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/profiles/state_of_play.php" target="_blank">interesting article</a> about a chain of corporate-sponsored entertainment centers called <a href="http://www.kidzania.com/" target="_blank">KidZania</a> that lets kids try on a variety of careers in a fun, game-like setting. The theory is that by exposing young people to different types of jobs they might choose in the future, they'll be more likely to make well-informed decisions today.
<img title="Kidzania Tokyo" src="http://www.themorningnews.org/images/Smith-Kidzania1.jpg" alt="Kidzania Tokyo" width="400" height="533" />
How did you first learn about the career you're in today?
Some of us decided on our dream careers at a young age, doggedly pursuing that dream throughout our entire educatioal experience. The rest of us -- perhaps the majority of us -- followed a winding and unpredictable path to a career that often looks nothing like the ill-informed and amorphous dreams of our childhood selves. Personally, I went through a series of fantasy jobs as a young person: palentologist, archaelogist, commercial artist, poet. Strangely, "educator" was nowhere on that list. Surely, exposure to career options is a huge part of that personal dream process.
But regardless of how we got to where we are today, most of us can pinpoint a time in our lives when we inspired to be or do something. Whether we are in that dream job today or not, that connection to our imagined future selves helped many of us make it tenaciously through the barriers and obstacles of the American educational system.
At <a href="/" target="_blank">College Summit</a>, we recognize the power of connecting your current self to your future career and life goals. In face, College-Career Connection is one of our five Core Understandings that form the backbone of <a href="/school-districts/superintendents-and-principals/our_tools/course_for_postsecondary_planning/" target="_blank">our education products</a>. For example, on <a href="https://secure.csnav.org/Welcome.aspx?nextpage=%2fDefault.aspx" target="_blank">CSNav</a>, we help students identify their career interests via the Interest Profiler, an interactive set of yes or no questions:
<a title="interestprofiler by msjones166, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/msjones166/5617161771/"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5021/5617161771_211e1346c2.jpg" alt="interestprofiler" width="500" height="435" /></a>
Once you work through all of the questions, CSNav provides you with a summary of your interest areas, aligned with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_Codes" target="_blank">Holland Code</a>...
<a title="interests by msjones166, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/msjones166/5617745788/"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5067/5617745788_7858fcf57b.jpg" alt="interests" width="481" height="500" /></a>
...as well as a sortable list of careers that match your interests...
<a title="careerlist by msjones166, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/msjones166/5617161841/"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5067/5617161841_4b6eec6a63.jpg" alt="careerlist" width="466" height="500" /></a>
...each with it's own in-depth career information page, drawn from the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/" target="_blank">Occupational Outlook Handbook</a>.
<a title="career by msjones166, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/msjones166/5617168277/"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5024/5617168277_c600fe5a19.jpg" alt="career" width="500" height="461" /></a>
Technology can be a great tool for learning about careers, but how do we help young people connect to career information in a way that is inspiring, engaging, and memorable? Last month, I had the opportunity to serve as a judge for <a href="http://www.stemposium.org/home" target="_blank">STEMposium</a>, a national contest designed to begin to answer that question by collecting, sharing, and funding the most innovative ideas for connecting young people to STEM education.

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During the <a href="http://www.stemposium.org/semifinalists2011" target="_blank">semi-finals</a>, I heard from a number of engaging presenters who offered ideas for how to engage young people early in order to inspire them to pursue STEM careers. From <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POueve2nUr0" target="_blank">travelling robots</a> to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi8VydAGKbk" target="_blank">massively multiplayer online role playing games</a> (MMORPGs), the possibility for creating engaging STEM experiences seem endless. Two of my favorite ideas (and two that ended up winning the finals) were probably the least scalable:
<a href="http://graphics.pixar.com/people/derose/index.html" target="_blank">Tony DeRose of Pixar</a> proposes a network of <a href="http://www.youngmakers.org/" target="_blank">"Young Makers" clubs</a> where young people tinker with and make their own designs, presenting them at each year's annual <a href="http://makerfaire.com/" target="_blank">MakerFaire</a>.

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<a href="http://science.ousd.k12.ca.us/caleb.htm" target="_blank">Caleb Cheung of Oakland Unified School District</a>, holds annual "<a href="http://science.ousd.k12.ca.us/dinner.htm" target="_blank">Dinner with a Scientist</a>" events where young people get to share an exceedingly geeky meal with local engineers and scientists.

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Both innovations expose young people to careers through personal connections to inspirational adults who are willing to spend one-on-one time in a casual setting talking about what they do. It's this personal connection that College Summit seeks to offer at our Workshops and throughout the school year with our Alumni and Regional support. But is there more we could be doing to connect young people to meaningful experiences that might light a spark of inspiration leading them to successful careers?
Share your ideas for how to connect young people to career information in the comments section below.
 

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