The annual Healdsburg Junior High Career Day took place on April 19, with over 20 local businesses and individuals taking part. The day kicked off with a keynote speaker, David Hamelburg, founder of Boomerang Plus, who talked to the students about important skills for getting hired and how to be successful in their careers. He specifically covered soft skills, such as communication and introduction skills, such as practicing a professional handshake.
Following that talk, students spent the morning rotating between three different sessions with specific businesses that they had preselected to learn about.
“I ask every student — they fill out a survey — which sessions they want to go to and then I put them in three and they rotate to three different classrooms. It’s not a career fair, its more of a set up with class sessions,” HJH school counselor Bethany Carlson said.
While many schools do not begin the career exploration process until the high schools years, Carlson thinks it’s important to start early.
“I just think it’s really important to get them thinking about their future and what options are out there,” she said. “It helps to make the schoolwork relevant, because it’s easy to forget about that. A lot of them know what they want, but most of them don’t. They haven’t thought about what they to be when they grow up, so it’s a great experience to introduce them to many different careers.”
Carlson tries to balance presenters between careers that will require a college degree and those which won’t. “I want to have opportunities for those who know they don’t want to go to college,” she said. “The most important thing is to have a variety.”
At the end of the day, Carlson has the students complete a reflection assignment, which allows them to process the different sessions and careers and think about whether it is a career they want to pursue.
“They write about what skills they think they will need for their dream career, as well as what classes they think they need in junior high and high school to prepare them for it,” she said. “I encourage students to think about what they can do outside of school to prepare them for their careers before they graduate high school. I think it’s important for students to start thinking about volunteer and shadowing opportunities at an early age, as it gives them more direction in choosing a college and/or major when the time comes.”
