Thankfully, dreams can change. If we'd all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses. – Stephen Colbert Many young people have a general idea about what they “want to be when they grow up,” but as the epigraph above makes clear, these ideas tend to change over time as they learn more about the world...
When you've been asked to write an essay, it can feel overwhelming. That's especially true if you're just getting started out in college and haven't had to write that many essays before. You can also have trouble if you're being asked to write on something you don't know much about,...
Thankfully, dreams can change. If we'd all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses. – Stephen Colbert
Many young people have a general idea about what they “want to be when they grow up,” but as the epigraph above makes clear, these ideas tend to change over time as they learn more about the world and what types of occupations are available to them. To this end, career counselors can facilitate this process by helping students learn more about their viable career choices depending on their individual preferences and aptitudes. This paper describes a proposed “career day/fair” for middle school students to help them become more knowledgeable concerning their career choices followed by a summary of relevant career counseling contributions by other researchers. Finally, an explanation concerning the importance of addressing career education throughout the child's middle school experience and a discussion concerning how this assignment can help practitioners become more effective guidance counselors, particularly as it relates to college and career opportunities are followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning career counseling for middle school students in the conclusion.
Although career readiness counseling should begin early on in elementary school and continue through the high school years, middle school students in particular can stand to benefit from these initiatives (Gysbers, 2013). Moreover, student interest in high-demand careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields drops off during the middle school years (McGinnis, 2014). Therefore, the focus of this comprehensive career counseling plan will be on promoting STEM careers for middle school students in grades 6 through 8.
The STEM career day/fair’s overarching goals will be to educate middle school students concerning the following facts as they apply to their choice of careers:
Men and women choose careers as scientists and engineers;
Most scientists and engineers work in teams;
Science affects everyday life;
Scientific knowledge is a result of human endeavors, imagination, and creativity;
Individuals and teams from many nations and cultures have contributed to advances in science and engineering; and,
Science and engineering are influenced by society, and society is influenced by science and engineering (McGinnis, 2014, p. 79).
The programs developed for the STEM career day/fair are set forth below.
A 30-minute opening speech by a keynote speaker for all attendees;
A series of smaller half-hour group presentations in classrooms devoted to specific STEM-related careers including hands-on demonstrations of representative technologies (if available) with attendees rotating through six different presentations;;
Refreshments (pizzas and soft drinks);
Tour of exhibitors by all attendees; and,
A question-and-answer session for all attendees.
A study by McGinnis (2014) involved planning, coordinating and conducting a STEM career fair day that proved highly effective in raising interest in STEM-related careers in a middle school in Eagleville, Pennsylvania, including having an astronaut for their keynote speaker and numerous hands-on demonstrations coordinated by presenters. This study, though, made it clear that a successful career fair requires an extensive amount of pre-planning and coordination, beginning at least 6 months prior to the fair day in order to ensure optimal outcomes (McGinnis, 2014). A summary of planning and timing of the required for a STEM career fair day is set forth at Appendix A. As can readily be discerned from this summary, successful STEM career fair days do not just happen but are rather the result of a significant amount of hard work and investment of time and resources by guidance counselors. Carefully planned and executive, however, these types of career field initiatives can achieve their goals, an outcome that is especially important for middle school students as discussed below.
There are literally thousands of career fields available to middle school students today and new ones are emerging all the time (Kier & Blanchard, 2014). Therefore, helping young people learn about these career fields as they apply to their individual preferences and abilities represents an important enterprise, beginning early on in elementary school and continuing throughout their educational pursuits. During the middle school years, though, studies have shown that student interest in STEM careers diminishes, a trend that is especially problematic since it is during the middle school years that most young people begin to seriously consider what career they should pursue (McGinnis, 2014). In this regard, Kier and Blanchard (2014) also emphasize that, “While new jobs in STEM fields are expected to greatly increase in the next 10 years, studies indicate that many students lose interest in STEM in the transition from middle school to high school” (p. 73).
This diminished interest in STEM career fields has been attributed to the perception among middle school students that practitioners in these fields are noncreative and socially isolated and that these occupations involve too much education and are too difficult for them to learn (Kier & Blanchard, 2014). In response, researchers have compiled a comprehensive set of STEM career-related videos that are free to educators as well as developing a STEM Career Awareness Project website that is available to educators and middle school students that include 89 STEM career videos together with corresponding informational fact sheets about the field tailored to middle school science content (Kier & Blanchard, 2014).
As the timeline shown at Appendix A makes apparent, planning, coordinating and conducting a STEM Career Fair Day can help guidance counselors become more effective in general and as it relates to college and career opportunities in particular. Although STEM careers were the focus on this initiative, the same basic steps can be applied to virtually any career field. Because these steps require collaboration with multidisciplinary professionals, parents and students, planning, coordinating and conducting a career day/fair provides valuable experience for guidance counselors that can be applied to future initiatives.
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