Lower Lake High School started hosting The Career Day in 2013. Each year many wonderful business and industry leaders from our community help students discover new career opportunities. This opportunity enable students to explore career pathways which will directly affect them as they enter the workforce or attend college.
This year was no exception for the many businessmen and women who gave up their valuable time to spend several hours with Lower Lake high school students. In some cases, this was their first time, in others, this was their fifth year as a presenter. In either case, students were able to benefit as they took one more step toward adulthood with the knowledge they received.
Next week, our students will be given an opportunity to job shadow a Rotarian. This is a great follow up to what they learned during Career Day. I can’t thank the Rotary Club enough for their support, along with our local police, fire and fish and game departments. I would love to see more opportunities for students to job shadow in our community. As a co-owner of a small business in Lake County, I understand the importance of your time, often more valuable than money. This too, is an important lesson for our students.
Today, students spend much of their time looking at their phones, or playing games. When it’s time to look to their future, many of them don’t have a clue. They don’t seem to know how to ask questions. They take You-Tube for granted, and think of it as the answers to life without realizing there are many steps ahead of them.
As an educator, we teach students, reading, writing, arithmetic, science and hopefully, how to research. However, we can’t teach parents on how to parent. Sadly, many families don’t spend quality time together like eating meals without phones or electronic devices or playing games and reading to their children, or just talking and teaching them life skills. This too, seems to have fallen on their educators. Many teachers, have not been taught in college how to handle these situations; as they have been taught to teach, not parent. Life is stressful, and time gets away from all of us, but there is a community of wonderful business owners who gave their valuable time to help our students grow one step closer to a future.
Thank you to all those that participated this year in our Career Day. Your contribution has been invaluable for the students of Lower Lake High School.
Joan Shelley Mingori is College and Career Advisor for Lower Lake High School
