A program to help 8th graders develop
a "career profile"

Fourteen-year-old Mary Thomas wants a career in film and video editing. She said she's changed her choice of high schools in order to better shape her future education toward that goal.

Mary Thomas

Mary is an 8th grader at Riverview Central Middle School. She's taking part in a GEAR UP program that helps kids explore career choices and search for the best education path to their careers.

Originally, Mary said she had planned to attend a high school in the Hazelwood School District. But, after exploring her chosen field, she said she decided to enroll at Cardinal Ritter High School.

She said she feels the focus of Cardinal Ritter's college preparatory classes produces "higher graduation rates and a higher percentage of graduates accepted by colleges."

Nearly 300 8th graders at Riverview Central have signed up for the GEAR UP program.

Karim Johnson is the GEAR UP coordinator to both middle schools in the Riverview Gardens School District. The other middle school is Westview.

Ms. Johnson said a first-year goal is to have each student create a personal "career profile." After building a profile, the students can access a national "Career Zone" website. That site explains requirements and opportunities in their career area.

She said, "The 'Career Zone' is a separate website in New York that is linked to our Pathfinder program. Kids can compare their career personality profile to possible job categories in their field."

Ms. Johnson said the students can keep refining-or even change-their career profile as they advance through high school. They also develop a job resume, which helps them look for internships in their career field.

Donny Bradfield

Fourteen-year-old Donny Bradfield said he's completed his initial profile but hasn't done his resume as yet.

The 8th grader said he wants a career in print journalism. Since most entry jobs in that field require a college degree, Bradfield also is reconsidering his high school choice.

"My mother is looking into getting me into Cardinal Ritter because it's a college preparatory high school," he said.

One other feature of the GEAR UP program helps kids develop a blueprint for future classes that best prepare them for their chosen fields.

Jasmine Moore

Fourteen-year-old Jasmine Moore is an 8th grader at Central Middle who joined the career program last month. "I got my career profile information in during January," she said.

She said she wants to be an artist. She said she's just now starting to explore the "Career Zone" website to match her profile to available employment possibilities.

Regardless of their progress in planning, all three of the kids have been working to develop their skills for their chosen fields.

Mary Thomas said she's already made a 10-minute movie entitled "School Year, 2006."

It contains still and motion pictures that tell the story of life at Central Middle last year. She said she's planning to do another one during the second semester of classes.

In the first movie, her twin sister, Maria, narrates the film's opening.

Mary took all the pictures and edited the movie on computer. She also included a musical background involving both hip-hop and R&B recordings from her own CD collection.

Donny is a member of Central's newspaper club. The club publishes a school paper every two weeks. He said he also helps sell copies of the paper in front of the cafeteria during lunch hours. The charge is 25 cents, he said.

But, he said he thinks his best writing was a fictional murder mystery written for an English class. Titled "Christmas of No Return," the story involves friends who all are murdered while vacationing.

Jasmine said she does mostly pencil drawings. "I'm trying to learn how to draw people," she said. She does most of her artwork in class but is looking to take outside art classes.

She said she considers her best drawing to be one of the popular rapper Bow Wow. "It doesn't look like him but I think it's my best drawing," she said.

After their job resumes are completed, students put them on the Pathfinder website for prospective employers to see. The kids also get a chance to look for companies seeking interns or part-timers with their skills.

To learn more about the GEAR UP program, call Roseanne Vrugtman, the Pathfinder coordinator at (314) 516-4349. You can e-mail to vrugtmanr@umsle.edu.