“What do you want to do with the rest of your life?” can be a daunting question, especially when you are a teenager. At first glance, it would seem to be a choice between college, military, and workforce; and yet there are deeper questions that, if asked, can be useful in guiding that decision.
students participating in LPP's Career Exploration
Workshop.
Laurie Whitermore, director of the SUNY Jamestown Community College Liberty Partnerships Program, explains that the search is best begun with thinking about personal strengths and interests.
“With the Liberty Partnership Program, they take a multi-faceted assessment which gives them an overview of what motivates them, and some career choices that might interest them,” Whitermore explains. “It shows them their strengths and teaches them to work with their well-developed skills. This allows for a happier career experience, versus expending energy on skills you may possess, but aren’t fully developed.”
Utilizing a grant from the New York State Education Department, LPP supports middle and high school students yearlong with personal learning plans, leadership goals, college preparedness, and service learning. Running Monday through Thursday, July 5-28 at JCC’s Jamestown Campus, this workshop is a unique component of the program, offered for participants who are nearing graduation. On Mondays and Wednesdays, LPP provides tools and exercises to deepen self knowledge and promote identity exploration.
“Five years ago, JCC applied for the grant and received funding,” Whitermore explains. “We started the program from bare bones, and now we have five navigators that are on-site.”
This summer, JCC’s Career Services have teamed with LPP to help host the Career Exploration Summer Camp. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Career Services provides engaging opportunities to learn about different occupations, and the paths people take to find work that satisfies them. Annie Chartrand, career services coordinator, and Julie Page, project manager, conduct career readiness workshops with an aim to flip the pressure-inducing question, “what do you want to do?” on its head and encourage career exploration.
Career panels have provided opportunities for students to meet groups of professionals with jobs in fields related to programs available at JCC. As panelists share their career journeys and experiences, students can see how the occupations and stories of how they got there differ. Still, the message to lean into your strengths and not be afraid to make a change has carried through the entire course of the workshop.
Chartrand notes that after listening to a panel of professionals from a variety of health fields, one student commented “none of these grownups knew what they wanted to do either!”
Chartrand highly values accessibility in career counseling. “How do you find the right job for you if you don’t even know what it’s called,” she muses. “People have concrete notions of what’s available – healthcare means doctors and nurses – and don’t realize how many different occupations actually comprise an entire field of expertise.”
This is where site tours drive home the message. One week, students met people employed in public and professional services. The panel was followed by the group touring Jamestown’s City Hall with Mayor Eddie Sundquist. Students learned about the duties of the city clerk, assessor, police, firemen, and the mayor. They were able to view birth certificates from the 1800s, learn how taxes are assessed, sit in a courtroom and talk about how court cases are processed, view pictures of all the mayors in the history of Jamestown and their birthplaces, and have their pictures taken in the mayor’s seat.
One student asked Sundquist about how to run for mayor and was surprised the process was more complex than they imagined.
“What we hope to do is capitalize on what they do at camp and really keep working with them throughout the year,” Whitermore shared. “Our job is to get them college ready, because if they are college ready, they are ready for anything; but we’re not pushing college on them. We’re pushing what’s best for them. A lot of times you’re planting seeds and hoping they will bloom and grow as the student gets older.”
LPP navigators maintain the program at Dunkirk City School District, Jamestown Public Schools, and Salamanca City Central School District. Whitermore has been with the program since its inception, and plans to retire at the end of this grant cycle.
“I feel so blessed to live in a community that pours in to students so that we don’t ever feel like we’re doing it alone,” Whitermore mused. “That’s what I think makes it magical - that’s what makes it worthwhile. It’s a beautiful way to end a career.”