High School Students Attend JA Focus on the Future Capstone Event

 

On March 13, students from Glasgow, Newark, and Christiana High Schools participated in the Junior Achievement’s Focus on the Future Program held at JA World in Wilmington, Delaware. Support from the Rodel Foundation allowed Junior Achievement to present classes and real world experiences that would help students discover their post-high school options.

“Junior Achievement of Delaware is proud to have presented the work-readiness program, ‘Focus on the Future,’ in the Christina School District during the past school year,” said Rebecca M. Fisher, Vice President of Education for Junior Achievement of Delaware.    

“We had 31 students from our Accounting, Business Finance, and Computer Application classes engaged with the business representative in the careers that they choose through various surveys and classroom assignments,” said Ed Smith, Business Teacher at Glasgow High School.  “Our students completed a year long program on work-readiness skills, career exploration, and post-secondary education opportunities.”

In the final class sessions, there was a panel discussion about college life that was provided by University of Delaware students.  “Our students were grateful to hear from the University of Delaware students on what college life was like for them and the choices that had to make prior to going to college,” said Mr. Smith.

"We want students to know that they have a world of opportunities for higher education and careers here in Delaware,” said Ms. Fisher.  "Our job is to prepare students to succeed in the global economy.  The first step is helping them find their path toward graduating from high school and then exploring how higher education will help them reach their career and life goals.  JA can do that because of its successful partnerships with the business and education communities." 

“Thank you for the opportunity to meet these employers,” said Shamara Brummell, a Glasgow High School senior.  “The information presented by all the businesses has caused me to totally rethink about my college courses to take and my career goals.  The forensic pathologist from the Medical Examiner’s Office helped me out a lot with ways to get into the field and how to plan for college.”

The day started with panel discussion from the various employers and continued with small group discussions in the chosen career pathways of the students.  After lunch, the students worked on budget planning including finding out how much college is going to cost.  Elizabeth Moodie, a Glasgow Business Teacher, commented, “This is awesome!   The questions the students are asking and the real-life answers these business leaders are giving is changing our student’s career and life perspectives.  All of the students are really engaged.”

“The biggest surprise for me was just learning about what a real lawyer thinks and finding out how they got where they are today,” said Michael Whittington, a sophomore from Glasgow High School.

The following companies and organizations participated:

Aloysius, Butler & Clark Attorney at Law - Sharon Eppes Christiana Care Delaware Theatre Company Diver Chevrolet ING Direct, USA Office of the Chief Medical Examiner

RE/MAX & Associates The CBI Group The Rebel Restaurant The Siegfried Group Wilmington Police Department WSFS Bank Center

The Glasgow High students that attended the JA Focus on the Future Program were ShayQuana Abrams, Joshua Banfill, Brandon Brown, Shamara Brummell, Jasmine Buckner, Heather Burris, Bessie Cephas-Stocks, Earnest Concepcion, James Dean, Aaron Dudkewitz, Alec Duvall-Hill, Mario Garcia, Sascha Gibson, Nicholas Giorlando, Lori Class, Kira Goldsborough, Kai Hadaway, Jade Hammond, Danielle Hill, Xavier Kelly, Caira Ledford, Chad Masso, Abrahim Morjana, Victoria Rossiter, Ellesse Rougier, Chantisse Teel, Ariel Walker, Tyrell Whitehead, Michael Whittington, Jasmine Williams, and Diamond Womack.

Also attending were Christin Knox and Christopher Pinkney, students of Edna Buzgon from Newark High School.  Additionally in attendance were students in the Entrepreneurship Class of Christiana High School business teacher Sandra Manfredi.  These students are Renee Alladin, Stanley Bolton, Deborah Bridgeford, Javon Brown, London Brown, Walter Cassidy, Chanae Edwards, Bianca Ford, Lauren Goffredo, Alexandria Jones, Jakwan Keyes, Sarah Lambert, Rodney Laryea, Le’Asia Lively, Xavier McGhee, Malcolm Quallo, Ashanti West, James Williams, Moriah Williams, Keith Wilson, and Raymond Woods.

 

 

April 2009