LINCOLN -- The Community Alliance's January meeting featured high school students telling what they learned last fall when speakers from different careers addressed students in small group settings.
Lincoln Consolidated School District sponsors the Community Alliance to allow people in the area to find out what's going in the district's school buildings. Alliance meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month and include lunch. January's meeting was held in Lincoln High School library.
Lincoln High implemented a new focus this year and students were asked to choose a general career path to follow throughout their high school years. The paths include industrial, business, healthcare, education, automotive and human resource management.
A speaker from each of these areas was asked to talk to students about their careers and the feedback was so successful the school has increased the number of speakers from six in the fall to 13 for the next session, Jan. 22.
In the fall, students attended the breakout session for their chosen career path. For the next session, students have been allowed to sign up for a specific speaker or area.
"We realized there were other fields that students were interested in," said Sarah Simmons, instructional technology master teacher at the high school.
High school student Gohon Lee is interested in engineering and his speaker was a representative from Polytech Plastic Molding in Prairie Grove.
"Now I have more of an idea of what I want to do for a career in the future," Gohon said at the Community Alliance meeting.
Joseph Chavana said he liked learning about the speaker's work experience and was impressed with the speaker's work ethic growing up.
Both said they learned about opportunities in the engineering field and with similar companies, such as internships, summer jobs, work study and working with molding machines on the plant floor.
Student Jeremy Miller is interested in digital media and producing digital movie films. His speaker worked in information technology with Tyson Foods and Jeremy said he did not realize Tyson had so many different careers within the company.
"When I think of Tyson, I think of chickens and chicken farms," Jeremy said, noting he saw where his career interest would work with a company similar to Tyson Foods, such as having opportunities to work on commercials.
Sgt. Mark Scates with Prairie Grove Police Department was the speaker for the career cluster health sciences, criminal justice and public safety.
Chloe Emerson is interested in working for a non-profit organization and attended the career cluster human services and education. Her speaker works as a counselor and gave good information about applying for colleges and financial aid.
Shaina Denton is interested in agriculture and her speaker worked in "exactly the field I want to go into," she said. Shaina said she is interested in poultry but not the animal aspects of the field but the food aspects.
"Because I like food," she said laughing with the group.
Her speaker, also from Tyson Foods, explained how employees from different professions in a company work together as a team to accomplish goals and complete projects.
Student Reagan Flickinger said her speaker talked about the importance of furthering your education to succeed.
"I feel college is very important. If not college, you still need some technical school or other background to help you succeed," Reagan said.
Courtney Jones, high school principal, said the purpose of the speakers is to help students realize that different careers are available in each field. While some of the career representatives did not fit a student's specific interest, she said she still believes students benefited from the information provided by speakers.
General News on 01/20/2016