Students apply to colleges, universities, and trade schools when they have no idea what their $200,000 loans from the bank are getting them because, although Waterford High has many AP and ECE classes that provide a glimpse into college life, the structure of schools in our district do not prepare students for choosing and pursuing a career path right for them.
Guidance counselors typically come into all of the senior English classes to talk about college and speak to the students about their plans for the future and ask about how they can help with college preparation, but college preparation should not start in senior year and should be introduced in middle school.
I remember at the end of eighth grade, the guidance counselor came to my science class and gave us a program of studies for WHS classes before signing up for classes, but there was no talk about what we might want to do in the future. If we had been questioned about what we may want to do in the future, then we could have taken classes in freshman year towards that goal, seen if we liked the work or not, and been able to pivot based on those experiences and search for something more fitting.
However, there are some WHS classes that allow students to catch a glimpse of their chosen career, which are ECE: Love It, Teach It, Unified Science, Unified PE, ECE EMT, and Human Body Systems.
In ECE: Love It, Teach It, students are taught how the education profession works, from the role of unions to efficiently teaching a classroom, which they can also receive UConn credit if they so choose. Also, students visit varying grades in session and examine classroom structures, as well as create their own lesson plan and teach a class to further teach students what it is to be an educator. The class helps tremendously because the class is meant to teach future educators how to be the best educators they can, and after writing and creating two lessons, it has shown me that I do not want to become a teacher. Senior Skyla Campisi said that teaching is her second choice for profession and that the class has shown her that she would like teaching very much, if her first choice, becoming a sonographer, does not come into fruition.
In Unified Science, juniors and seniors are able to work with students with disabilities and help them understand science concepts throughout the semester as well as teach the class with a relevant scientific topic of their choice. In Unified PE, students of any grade are able to work with students with disabilities and earn a repeatable half credit for the class and PE credit for graduation. In both of the unified classes, students get to learn about how to care for the needs of students with disabilities. These classes can help those students who might be interested in a job in special education and help them figure out if it is something that they might want to do with their lives. I know of a senior last year who took the class and went to college to become a special education teacher, using the class as a “prequel” to her college studies.
Human Body Systems is run in alliance with East Lyme High School, and students can earn a half credit for taking the course. Students study medical terminology, homeostasis, and body organization. They also study how diseases affect the body, allowing students who take the course to earn a better understanding of the class. According to our school’s Program of Studies, the class is meant for “Allied Health fields such as Nursing, Radiologic Technology, Medical Assistants, [etc.].”
The ECE EMT program is also run in partnership with East Lyme High School. Students must have taken anatomy, chemistry, and biology or human body systems in order to take the class. Students can earn 1.5 college credits and are provided insight into how to care for patients in a prehospital setting, lessons on what is required of EMTs, and learn more about how to treat patients and transport them to the hospital. If students pass this class, then they will become eligible to take the National Registry EMT exam.
These types of classes are good for giving some scope for students on if they are willing to put in the work with certain professions, and if the school can just talk to students when they are in middle school and get them thinking about classes that could help them prosper in the future with no extra cost besides five extra minutes of time, then they should.
