This July will be my third year teaching "Imagining and Managing Your Future." I am very excited to be once again in the classroom for two weeks with high school students from across the country. I am fortunate to have had a very enthusiastic and diverse group of students who are excited to be on our beautiful college campus taking classes, eating in the cafeteria, exploring our city during free time, and staying up late in the residential halls talking about those things young adults talk about.
I will run the course as I have over the past couple of years. We will explore career aspirations, build a résumé, work on job applications, conduct mock job/admissions interviews, search colleges and other post-secondary institutions online, and talk about the behaviors and attitudes in high school that lead to success in high school and that create viable career and college options after high school.
I have plans for two guest speakers to speak with my students. Last year, I asked a member of the corporate office of one of our city's major employers, Wegman's, to talk about their hiring practices of young people, college scholarships for employees who are in high school, job opportunities for recent college graduates, and the overall benefits of working for a Fortune 500 company. I will also ask Chevy Devaney, Director of Multicultural Affairs at Keuka College, to engage the students in a conversation about identity, tolerance, and acceptance. Her chat last year was a big hit, and she had a great experience with the students:
"The students last summer were wonderful—incredibly engaging and open to new ideas and experiences. The time spent was too short, but it gave us an opportunity to have an honest conversation with each other around bias and stereotypes. I believe the students were all amazed at how quickly we tend to form biases and use information from various sources to inform and act on those biases. I believe the strength of this program in bringing students from various high schools around the country is the ability to have varying perspectives and voices. Students often realize that their perceived differences are only skin deep, and that they have more in common than they realize. Having conversations around respect, and what it means to live lives of consequence is a conversation I wish all young people were having."
Over the past year, I have clipped many interesting articles from The New York Times and I hope to share these with my students when particular topics, such as standardized tests, certain careers, and other relevant topics are brought up. I look forward to another wonderful two weeks teaching at the University of Rochester's Pre-College Programs.