TEMPLE, Texas — Seventh graders at Temple Independent School District’s Bonham Middle School are getting an opportunity to get a head start on learning about careers through a new elective course offered at the school.
Bonham is partnering with Workforce Solutions of Central Texas to offer Exploring Careers: Discovering Your Pathway to Success as an elective class for seventh graders this school year. The new class is part of Workforce Solution’s Student Occupational Awareness and Recognition or S.O.A.R. program and approximately 100 Bonham students are taking the course. Workforce Solutions provides a professional to work with and teach the students and the course highlights a new topic every six weeks. Students are currently learning about resume creation, critical thinking, and mock job interview skills while exploring how to navigate the world of work. Future topics will include exploring careers, financial skills, goal setting, creating action plans, learning about educational and training pathways and understanding their interests, strengths, and values.
Madelyn Krumnow is one of the seventh graders enrolled in the class. She was excited about the opportunity to begin learning about careers and has already learned some valuable lessons as she works toward her dream of working in interior design.
“It is a new class and it seemed really fun to explore careers and it has been fun and exciting, and I like to try new things,” Krumnow said. “I’ve already learned how to write a resume and what goes into pursuing a job and getting a job. We have also talked a lot about gratitude and professionalism.”
Krumnow’s classmate, Emely Reyes, was also drawn to the class for the opportunity to get a head start on a career. Reyes has also taken advantage of the chance to begin learning the skills that will help her in the job seeking process.
“I wanted to learn how to get a job so that I can be prepared for the future,” Reyes said. “It has been a really good experience so far. I’ve learned how to write my resume and act professionally and we are working on job interviews today.”
The Bonham students also receive high school credit for the class and will have an opportunity to explore each of the career clusters in TISD’s Career and Technical Education program during the year. According to the course description, students use project-based learning to understand the world of work and start the career planning process. Students will have the chance to discover job possibilities that link skills, abilities, interests, values, needs and work environment preferences as part of the process of learning employability skills and abilities to promote college and career readiness.
“We are so lucky to be able to partner with Workforce Solutions to bring the SOAR program to Bonham Middle School this year,” said Michael Hobbs, principal of Bonham Middle School. “The ‘Exploring Careers’ class will be beneficial to the school goals of developing leaders on campus. Our students will be getting the occupational and financial skills that will round out the excellent education they are receiving in Temple ISD.”