Our 6th-8th grade students are focused on bright futures at New Castle Middle School. They have been busy exploring careers and setting goals for themselves through weekly college and careers guidance lessons. First semester, NCMS set the bar high in career exploration, collaborating with community leaders for Building Better Futures Day. As a school, we celebrated College GO! Week, and our 8th graders attended JA JobSpark at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, a job fair attended by 13,000 other 8th graders state-wide. This semester, all grade levels will have the opportunity to tour local college campuses to learn more about their post-secondary options. 8th graders visited Anderson University, 7th graders toured Ball State, and our 6th graders will visit Indiana University East in May.
We’ve had the opportunity to build connections with local businesses and community leaders to offer additional exposure to career pathways for our students through small group field trips and hands-on learning. Following Better Futures Day, NCMS has hosted “Career Cafe” monthly, in which professionals from different career clusters come in and discuss their pathways with students casually during lunchtime. This has created safe, comfortable opportunities for students to ask more questions and spend more time learning about careers that align with their own individual interests. We’ve also partnered with Danielle from Purdue Extension to offer SPARK club programs during the school day. NCMS continues to collaborate with the New Castle Career Center, as well to offer students the opportunity to shadow their instructors and high school students to learn more about the programs that will be available to them as they transition into high school.
Stay tuned for more information on summer career learning experiences! Eleanor Roosevelt said it best, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams!” If you’d like to join the effort in providing our students with new career exploration opportunities, feel free to reach out to our career coach, Mrs. Kaleigh Brown at (kbrown2@ncweb.me).
Photo Above: NCMS students tour the Jacks' Donuts Factory
Photos Below: Career Cafe, Students Visit Career Center, & another Career Cafe
