On April 26, parents and Career Pathway board members got together for the Career Pathways meeting. They spent an hour and a half getting updates on what the school is improving and how students are getting more opportunities within the high school to further their education. The board is led by Kara Mueller, who said the main mission for these meetings is to call attention to potential opportunities each and every student has.
“Our main mission here is to have business and industry working with our high school teachers and students,” Mueller said. “(We want to) identify potential careers for students and give them experiences and careers.”
Fellow board member Julie Yakes said she agrees with Mueller in that each and every student has their own journey that can be personal to each student. According to Yakes, there is no path that’s identical to the other.
“Our main objective is to really expose all 1,400 students to all of the things that could spark an interest — that could be the career path for them,” Yakes said. “I always say (that) we have 1,400 kids, and that means we have 1,400 different paths that each child is going down.”
Local business owners are also invited to these meetings to give a new perspective and create new opportunities for the students. Honey and Rye owner Anne Andrus said she is excited to join the annual job fair to offer new and unfamiliar experiences to all high school students.
“I heard there was a career fair that (Park) does. We (Honey and Rye) were not a part of it this year but are excited and looking forward to it next year, as well as a job shadow that is being offered, which is very exciting for us,” Andrus said. “We’d love to sign up for it. We love to have students get behind the scenes and see what working at a bakery might look like.”
Board member and parent Joe Goelz said he is also looking to improve exposure for the students of Park. He said he wants to show that there is more than your average college experience and debt.
“I would love to bring class availability that incorporates (more than just) book learning — more hands-on work that sparks creativity,” Goelz said. “(I want) to look at different avenues for kids outside of the typical four-year college, and there are parts that do involve four-year school, (such as) construction and manufacturing, but aren’t your stereotypical jobs. There’s a lot of jobs where you don’t have to do four years of college and get all that debt.”
Not only is Park looking to give opportunities outside of school, but within the school as well. Park is currently working on multiple projects to expand the interests of the students. According to Mueller, Park is expanding in areas such as therapy, business and journalism.
“We (Park) are expanding into therapy areas. We’re building a new lab in which people can be on treadmills and on bikes and be analyzed and create a plan for them in therapy of different types,” Mueller said. “Another really cool one is our journalism with our communications and looking at developing a broadcasting program so our students could run a news station within the school. We are redeveloping e-marketing, and we are expanding in business to include International Baccalaureate class. Our DECA historial has doubled, and we’re going to have a brand new space for the store.”
