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First Workshop: Planning Events the Easy Way - 12/7/06

Discussing College | Job Shadowing | School Beautification

On Thursday, December 7, 21 individuals representing 11 alumni clubs and 2 CPS departments met to share their experiences and ideas on planning activities with a partner school. Participants spoke about challenges they had encountered and strategies for overcoming common obstacles. Read a summary of the discussion below, or download a printable workshop summary . Thanks to everyone who attended and contributed their ideas, and if you have questions about something that was mentioned or if you have anything to add to the information below, please .

How to Talk to Students about College

Resources:

• Department of Postsecondary Education website - contains a plethora of useful information to help you provide relevant advice about college to students.
• Harvard's Senior Advisory lesson plans - an example of the detailed plans that helped Harvard volunteers to discuss college with students

Summary:

Kate Tomford, a Harvard alumna and volunteer at Payton High School, spoke about her experience organizing Harvard volunteers to support the college counselors at Payton High School. Because there was not a great need for one-on-one college help, the Harvard group worked with Senior Advisory classes, which were already in place for seniors. Kate found that volunteers needed guidance on how to assist students, so they began using lesson plans developed by P.J. Karafiol, a Harvard alumnus and teacher at Payton. The lesson plans provided a needed specificity that helped volunteers to structure their time. (Download an example of Harvard's College Advisory lesson plans .) The Harvard group functioned best when volunteers and students attended regularly and were held accountable. One difficulty was that volunteer attendance would often fall off during the year because Senior Advisories were only held in the fall.

Margaret Oellrich, a Boston College alumna who works in the CPS Department of Postsecondary Education (PSE), spoke about some of the tools available from her department, including the resources available on PSE's website that provide useful documents and information on specific topics like financing college or career options. You can also view research on CPS students' college graduation rates and details on all of the programs Margaret mentioned, including AVID, Choices Planner, GEAR UP and Summer Quest. Rhonda Bell, another PSE employee and a Wisconsin alumna, described the impact of exposing students to a college campus as early as age five. Saya Hillman, a Boston College alumna, described her experience with a "Team Challenge", in which students wore donated college T-shirts while participating in athletics, which started a conversation with students about going to college.

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How to Host Students for Job Shadowing

Resources:

• Job Shadowing Toolkit - all the forms and information you need to hold a successful job shadowing program at your partner school, tailored specifically to alumni volunteers
• Groundhog Job Shadow Day - website with lots of detailed information on job shadowing days held on or around February 2, 2007. The How-To Guide (warning--large file: 10.5MB) is particularly helpful.

Summary:

Brendan Boyle, a Princeton alumnus and volunteer at Roosevelt High School, described his experience with Princeton's Career Modules, which involved bringing career speakers into the school as well as taking students on field trips to see professionals in action. Princeton volunteers, like those from Harvard, utilized a block of time that was already part of the school's schedule, which in this case was a series of student development days. Princeton alumni held mini-classes on each of the fields of media, non-profits and the arts, holding 4-5 meetings and a field trip for each topic. For the fall 2005 media module, Students learned from a sportswriter, a food critic and an editor and visited the Chicago Tribune newsroom, where they sat in on an editors morning meeting. The non-profit module took place during spring 2006 and focused on social programming, community organizing and resource development.

Volunteers faced several challenges during the Career Modules, including a lack of interest from some students, who had not all chosen to participate in the courses. It was sometimes difficult to keep students interested, which was frustrating for some of the alumni who spoke to classes and hosted students at their workplaces. Princeton had a staff person at Roosevelt who coordinated the modules and who was paid by the Princeton club. Other clubs that don't have their own staff person would likely have to utilize volunteers and school staff to coordinate an activity like this.

Several workshop attendees suggested strategies for overcoming these challenges. Cathy Hartmann, a Stanford alumna who has worked with Curie High School, suggested that a job shadowing program might work best when it begins with a survey of student interests so volunteers know what to focus on. Saya Hillman (Boston College) recommended coaching career speakers on how best to speak to a group of students, such as including interactive and hands-on activities in a presentation. Saya also described successful activities like showing a film, for example "Nobody Told Me the Road Would Be Easy", and discussing it afterward, or pairing students and alumni as pen pals.

Adam Arents, APS Project Manager, spoke about the Groundhog Day Job Shadowing program and the Job Shadowing Toolkit as resources for planning a successful activity.

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How to Beautify and Organize Your Partner School

One way to support students at your partner school is by improving their learning environment. Whether decorative or functional, nearly every school has ways volunteers can help to make it more organized and more beautiful. Also, a day of service can be a great way to attract a big group of alumni and utilize volunteers' skills and interests.

Resources:

• Beautification Toolkit - suggested beautification and organization activities as well as tips for planning a successful beautification day at your partner school
• Activity Grid - an organizational tool developed by one school to assist with assigning and providing details about specific tasks

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Page updated 23 January 2007

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