Career Pathways change in schedule
Photo submitted to Mr. Coleman
New career pathway changes allow students to meet their goals in life.
October 19, 2022
Last year was the first year OHS introduced Compass Days to staff and students. Compass Days are continuing this year and are every other Wednesday. They allow students to get extra help, work on missing assignments, get caught up on school work and have extracurricular meetings in the mornings and afternoons.
Compass Time last year in the morning went from 8- 8:30 a.m. and that was for interventions, counseling groups, student activity meetings and breakfast. Block classes throughout the day were 50 minutes and skinny 25 minutes- alternating compass weeks. Compass alternates every other compass day. Then ending the day off will be lunch and being dismissed from school at 1:05. If students stayed at school they were in interventions, counseling groups, student activity meetings and independent studying time.
This year OHS changed the compass schedule to shorten out work time before and after school. In the morning students now only have 20 minutes of work time. The thing that drastically changed for the students is that lunch this year is during third hour, and the school day ends at 1:50 p.m. OHS changed compass time because students took advantage of the free time before and after school.
Along with having extra time in the mornings and afternoons, Compass Days have Compass Time where students meet after second hour. Compass Time is 25 minutes and students are divided by their academic adviser groups. Compass time at OHS for Career Pathways program is transforming from the idea of aligning students in high school to careers and making their post-graduation plans a reality.
Upperclassmen are separated by pathways based on their interests. These classes are grouped by business communication and information technology, health sciences and human services and engineering manufacturing and agriculture. This gives students options to select pathways they would like to explore deeper or learn more about. The different groups have their own advisors that have interest in that area or experience, their goal is to guide them and give them and make decisions as far as that career or pathway goes.
Finding your pathway
Mr. Brian Coleman is the Career Pathways Navigator at Owatonna Public Schools. Mr. Coleman can help students in many different ways like picking the right classes, help students find colleges, get scholarships, applications as well as finding jobs. Mr. Coleman partners up with all local businesses to come up with opportunities for students to gain experiences or jobs shadowing. Mr. Coleman said, “Any kind of introduction with a student to a person to kind of learn more about their business or industry or even from lawyers to marketers. As long as I’m meeting the students needs and the students have a need that they would want to find out more about a career.” Mr.Coleman’s goal is for students to take all the opportunities OHS is offering now so after high school students know what career pathway they want to go into or field.
Mr. Coleman meets with many students about their future plans like Korah Rocha. Rocha heard about Mr. Coleman from her counselor when she was trying to figure out what Career Pathway. She also learned what the best classes were to take based on what pathways she was interested in. Rocha said, “He tells you if there’s an internship or anything you’re able to do so you can get better knowledge about the career you want to go into.” Rocha recommends going to Mr.Coleman if anyone has questions or any interest in any career or pathway.
Compass will hopefully be giving students more knowledge about different job fields and pathways before ending high school. Exploring,getting out there, getting some real life experience and making an informed decision before you go off to college are the goals of Compass Days.
Most students would not have the opportunities that OHS has to offer such as the career fair, how students have access to talk to professionals directly to gain knowledge and seek opportunities. OHS is hoping to increase students’ opportunities to do new things they haven’t done before or know about. OHS wants their students to be exposed to more and really just kind of have a better idea of what is out there so they are prepared for after high school. The next compass day is Wednesday, November 2.
