The Student Professional Development Center (SPDC) teamed up with the Boys and Girls Club of Alamance County to provide targeted career development workshops to a group of middle and high school students.
On Nov. 3 and Nov. 10, the Student Professional Development Center (SPDC) teamed up with the Boys & Girls Club of Alamance County to provide targeted career development workshops to a group of middle and high school students.
While the SPDC has a plethora of resources for college students, modifying these materials for a younger demographic presented a unique challenge. These students have a wide variety of goals that are different from traditional college students. Instead of finding the perfect internship, they may be looking to apply to college, a part-time job or a leadership position at school. Taking this into account, the SPDC created new activities to engage their thinking around professional development.
Director Brooke Buffington connected with Tara Nager ’12, who currently serves as the program director of the Boys and Girls Club of Alamance County, to discuss initial ideas for these programs.
Elon career advisors Alison Doherty and Corinne Townley then took the reins to develop two workshops, constructing a resume and interviewing/networking techniques. Once the material was decided upon, then came the task of making it engaging for students.
While resumes and interviewing are important, they can often feel intimidating to think about when looking for a job or applying to college. The goal was to keep the workshops fun, interactive and relevant for the middle and high school students.
Doherty and Townley created Kahoot! quizzes and activities that led students to engage in crafting a resume and practicing interview techniques. The students were eager to learn when they arrived at the Boys & Girls Club.
“They were an awesome group to work with. Corinne and I were really impressed by their engagement, thoughtfulness and the questions they asked,” said Doherty, the assistant director of career services for the School of Communications.
During the course of two-afternoon programs, the students of the Boys & Girls Club walked away with a better understanding of resumes, the application process and interviewing skills.
This helped to fulfill the Boys & Girls Club’s mission to “assure success is within reach of every young person who enters our doors, with all members on track to graduate from high school with a plan for the future” as well as provided the SPDC a chance to stretch their knowledge and gain a wonderful community partner.