One Cool Career Café Cat
My students and I have been loving the partnership I formed with our county career and technology center!In the past four weeks we have benefitted from a tour of the career and technical school for 5th grade students and guest speakers for Career Café sessions!
Students from the culinary arts program, cosmetology program, and veterinary assistant program have visited our school for Career Café sessions with my 5th though 8th grade students. Not only are my students learning about careers that match their interests, but they are learning about the career and technical school and the programs they have to offer! I am hoping that this early exposure will ignite students' interest and help them see the connection between elementary/middle school and their high school opportunities.
Our Career Café speaker today was a senior in the veterinary assistant program. She brought along Wally, a resident cat in the program. The students absolutely loved that there was a real animal at our Career Café! (Wally is actually the second animal to visit our school since I started Career Café! We had a Pitbull named Molly visit from the Humane Society last year!)
The veterinary assistant student did a great job explaining all the things she gets to do as part of her program. She explained that Wally helps her and other students practice the skills they are learning. She also spoke about options students have for post-secondary education after attending the career and technical school. She talked about how students could work as a veterinary assistant right after high school, attend college or a trade school to become a veterinary technician, or go to veterinary school to become a veterinarian. She shared with the students she plans to go to college to pursue a career as a zoologist so she can work with wild animals.
Students had tons of great questions and were very engaged in the session. Many students stayed afterwards to pet Wally before they went back to their class.
Which careers have you hosted for Career Café this year? Have you ever had a career session about careers with animals?
Read other posts about Career Café:
How to Host a Career Cafe at Your School Series
Danielle is a K-12 Certified School Counselor, Nationally Certified Counselor, and blogger at School Counselor Blog, a place where school counselors share innovative ideas, creative lesson plans, and quality resources. Connect with Danielle via email, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, and become a fan of the School Counselor Blog Facebook Page.
