by Katie Donaldson
STA career exploration panels this year included visual arts/ architecture, therapy, and nursing held by guidance counselor Kelly McKee, guidance counselor Amanda Johnson, and college counselor Debi Hudson in the auditorium. These panels guide students through the different opportunities that are available based on firsthand accounts of people in a certain profession.
“[These different programs] are really inspirational and gets [students] excited about all the possibilities in the real world,” McKee said. “[Choosing a future career] is a big decision to make, lots of pressure, our goal is to provide students with lots of education to make an informed decision once they get to college.”
STA has been doing career exploration for three years now, however, they used to do it differently. The community dedicated one day for career explorations, but juniors and seniors wanted to see more, there wasn’t enough time. Therefore, the counselors decided to hold three or four different panels a year and students could come during lunch and activity.
The counselors on the board of career exploration include Hudson, McKee, Johnson, and Holly Bentley. Most of the time, they try to contact STA alumni to revisit and talk to students. Career exploration is held during a regular week day so unfortunately, there are complications in finding STA alumni sometimes, so if they can’t then the board contacts STA parents.
“We try to keep it within the STA community,” Ms. McKee said.
After contacting these people, senior Sarah Vickery is in charge of getting students acquainted and excited with the certain career. “I set up the bulletin board outside [Ms. Bentley’s] office,” Vickery said. “I design the board with articles, pictures, and salary information. [Students] hear me on the announcements a week before and at the event I introduce the speaker. But, afterwards, I’m in charge of writing thank you notes, too.”
McKee was in charge of the February panel about nursing, which was held in the auditorium. This panel focused on the day in, day out responsibilities of a nurse, including nurses in a regular doctor’s office to those involved in cancer research. Science teacher Mary Montag gave extra credit to those students who attended this exploration panel.
“To hear the ups and downs of a nurse in the regular doctor’s office was really interesting because I want to be just like them,” freshman Anna Bennett, who attended the program said.
Other programs help prepare and inform students about the possibilities in their future, such as Missouri connections, an online research, Johnson introduces to sophomores that is a free resource available. Another way to inform students is on the PLAN test.
“[These career exploration panels] are an incentive to [students] because other peoples’ questions make you think of questions,” Montag said.
