 Lakeland Public Television presents Currents. Oh, I'm Bethany Wesley. Thank you for joining me. Tonight on Lakeland Currents, we are going to return to education, specifically focusing on how high schools throughout the region are helping their students explore potential career paths through Career Academies. Career Academies provide coursework and real-world workplace experiences for students who want to learn more about, observe, and in many cases actually acquire the foundational skills necessary to obtain employment and thrive within a specific industry. Joining me for this evening's discussions are Judy Richer, the coordinator of Bridges Career Academies in the Brainerd area, and Jen Vogue, the coordinator of Bemidji Career Academies at Bemidji High School, where she is also a school counselor. Thank you so much for joining me. Looking forward to our discussion. As we kind of get started here, why don't we provide a little bit of background in terms of, you know, what you've done and how it kind of got to where you're doing it today in terms of yourself personally? Well, I actually have been in education for a long time. I worked at Central Lakes College as the dean of students. And with my role there, Bridges, the Bridges Career Academies Workplace Connection Program, was part of my job. And so I retired and they asked me to come and continue on working with the Bridges Academies. And that was about four years ago. Four years, okay, great. And Jen, tell us a little bit about your background. Sure, I've been a school counselor for many years. I started at Hibbing High School. I worked at Hibbing High School as a school counselor for two years and worked in the Duluth area, a little school called Renshaw for a year. And then six years at Cass Lake-Bena High School as a school counselor. And then I've been at Bemidji High School for the past 10 years or so. Mostly as a school counselor, but I worked as a teacher for three years as well. Okay, interesting. Well, I'm really looking forward to this discussion because we have two different programs that are very similar and yet are operated very differently. And so, first, let's focus a little bit if we would on the Bridges Program. Tell us a little bit about when it was getting started, when you look back at the foundations, did you look at accomplishing a certain goal or how did you kind of start having those conversations that led to the program? Well, the Bridges Program is actually having its 10th year this year, celebrating its 10th anniversary. And it started as an initiative from local business and industry saying we need employees and we need skilled employees. And so the, actually, the initial partners were Central Lakes College, the Brainerd Lakes Area Chamber and five local school districts. And they developed the program. And about five years ago, they looked at the academy portion and wanted to strengthen that. And so it was redesigned. And the goals at that time were to really look at making sure that students were college and career ready for regional programs and the focus was regional because there were a lot of talented young people that were leaving the community and really could have stayed and made good salary. The other piece of that was that they really wanted to make sure that students understood what careers were all about. And so what that meant is to have real-world experiences to see the job as it really was. Now, just learn about it, but then actually get out there and see it and, in some cases, do it. Yes. So, and we're going to get into actually how the Career Academy is set up and how they work, and I want to turn it to Jen a little bit now and talk about cells where you're at in the process and kind of what it is your goals are at this point. Well, right now we're in the implementation phase. And in Bemidji, it's very similar. I think it started and it stemmed from looking at how we can best help students to transition from high school to the world of work, to college, to technical college. Also with the emphasis on our community and our regional economics talking with business owners and industry here in Bemidji and greater Bemidji saying, well, we have a need for people in our area and how can we best convey that need to our students in preparation for success with high-paying, high-skilled jobs regionally. And so we have that regional focus as well. And so we've been in a phase of talking and now we are in a phase of implementation. And so it's exciting. You just recently had your registrations and the students are showing their interest now, which will formulate next year, correct? Correct. So this school year has been a process of conveying what career academies are, why we have them in place. And we were able to convey that message and still need to more so. I think there's still a lot of question about the career academy, but we've had numerous students register for an academy, so we know that the interest is there and exciting to move forward and see how an academy will look throughout their education. It's not new to have career-planning discussions at that high school level or to have opportunities for coursework. Tell us, Judy, if you would, what makes a career academy unique? Well, the career academies that we have through Bridges are nothing like anything that you will find in any other state. What most states have done is they've actually taken a look at or they've created an entire academy focus for their entire school. So their school is, has focuses on three or four academies. If you went to Nashville, for example, they have a broadcasting school that focuses on nothing but those careers. And so students select their high school based on their career. What we have done instead is we have looked at the individual school and said, what is it that you do best? What is interesting in your community? What is important in people, in the school's community, is reflective of their course offerings. And so what we've done is we've taken a look at what course offerings they've had and built academies around those courses. Around their strengths. And they can be disciplinary or interdisciplinary. And what that means is that they can be strictly related to a specific discipline which means all of the courses within the academy are from auto-mechanics. Or they can be interdisciplinary. And with that auto-mechanics they can include English courses because obviously an auto-mechanic has to write up an order. They can include math courses and so on. So the academies are built in one of two ways and they're built around the high school strength. So Jen, as Bemidji is implementing this now, tell us a little bit about how the career academies will work. It's not a one semester program, correct? But how it will operate? Well, we have six different academies right now that students can register for. And within each academy students will have the foundational courses that they need to earn a high school diploma. And so the core courses are still embedded, of course, with the English, math, science, social in order to earn a high school diploma. And with electives students have so many electives that they have to choose from. At Bemidji High School we have 14 different departments and numerous electives. The academy allows a student with a specific interest to pull certain electives that are relevant to that academy or that certain career pathway and take those courses to learn more in depth information on that specific career area. And then with that, a real world experience, their junior or senior year where they're out in the community building connections, relations with community experts in that field. An internship or a job shadow or a work experience. We're pretty flexible on how that real world experience will look because it's really specific to that student's need. But we would like them to get connected and learn more in depth information about that area. In addition to the real world experience we are hoping to and will have for each academy college credit. And so one or more classes at Bemidji High School within the academy will be free college credit for that student whether it be an articulation agreement with area technical schools or community schools or college in the high school course. So tell us a little bit about are the courses are they in the actual high schools then or are kids traveling outside? Does it depend on the career academy itself? Well it actually does depend on the career academy itself. And that is the majority of courses are taken in the high school. However we do have some career exploration academies for some of our particularly small schools those schools that may graduate 25 students. And so their opportunities what we do with those particular students is create an internship or a work experience to help them focus on that particular career because the high school doesn't have any course offerings there. So and again are because the relationship between what the academy expectation is is the same we do each of the academy courses focuses on real world experiences. The other piece that we include is the employability skills. So making sure students understand that if they have to give a presentation in a particular course that's because that expectation would be out in the real world in a job for example. So as you're starting to talk to your students and I'm sure in many cases parents as well about what this is are you finding people are excited and enthusiastic about that opportunity? Yes absolutely. I think there's a lot of positive momentum for sure by students, by parents by community members which has been very exciting business leaders and business owners and there's been a lot of talk with business collaboration businesses and a lot of good feedback and so the momentum has been really good and we're listening to what businesses are saying that they need with their future employees and implementing that within the education so we're really trying to increase the collaboration and one thing that business partners say they need often it just comes up reoccurring in conversation are the employability skills the soft skills and so those skills are embedded within the academy as well and they're embedded in numerous ways one is through a course that we offer a requirement within an academy it's work seminar which teaches the employability skills, reliability good communication understanding boss's expectations, supervisors expectation ethics on the job and then in addition to that it's understanding your own personal interests and vocational strengths and how that relates to occupations out there within our community or within the state and so we're talking to business partners and their interest has been really high throughout the process and their role is key within the academy and how important is it to keep those relationships going I mean I'm sure it's easy but at the beginning when you got that enthusiasm has it been hard at all to maintain it or no they've seen the success in our region they have seen the success we have business partners that have been around for ten years since its inception and they maintain bridges because we're a regional program we actually are managed through a leadership team and the leadership team is made of education, business and local chambers and so business has always been very very strong and linked and has been very good at helping direct the program so and you said that they've been enthusiastic about being a partner now so obviously you expect that would continue as things grow that is the hope and the plan absolutely that's integral it's top of the list in terms of making an academy work our community partners are key so absolutely and just like bridges we have a similar group of people who come together from different entities saying we're going to collaborate and work together and this is our vision the chamber and greater Bemidji and industry and so we speaking a little generally how important is it for a high school just in general to help their students thinking earlier about careers I mean is there obviously benefit if it's growing what is that benefit well there are really two benefits the benefit that you actually see is on the back end and I'm not sure if you're aware of the number of students who have huge college debt who are doing reverse transfer which means they started a four year and come back to a two year because they need they want hands on skills and so that has been key the other thing because bridges focuses on the academic middle and those are students in that BC range and those are usually students who tend to either stay in the community their local community or come back to their local community and now if they've experienced an academy in their high school because their business experience is local their real life experience hands on they get to know what's available to them so when they come back into their community they already know that there is a possibility of a job and where those jobs are and in some cases they might actually have gone out to say have just had a speaker in the classroom which would have been you know the owner of that business so they have contact and those students who stay in the community are much more easily find employment and have those partnerships and those friendships they've already made those connections and Jen we've talked a little bit about this as well because while you are still in that implementation stage you have had success with the mechatronics which is one of your career academies tell them about the kind of student that you've seen through this it's not just your high achievers as Judy is saying it isn't and it's high achievers too and with the mechatronics specifically we have students in there who are planning on going into engineering and want to go a four year track in terms of college and maybe beyond four years and want to learn the intricacies of the hands on problem solving we have students who in mechatronics are where colleges or high school is a little more difficult for them they are hands on learner book work isn't what they enjoy or isn't necessarily their strength and they want to get in and fix things with their hands that's how they learn that's how they excel and so students who have struggled in high school go into the mechatronics program and thrive and thrive with difficult, challenging rigorous expectation and then in addition have an opportunity to visit partners community partners who are hiring and job opportunities for after high school and you mentioned you know just that tradition of transition in high school and how that looks for students and I think at the high school level it's it needs to be all about transitioning students from school to work to college to technical college and so with our academies it's not exclusive to any one particular type of student it's open to to all students but I think the focus primarily is technical vocational because for so long I think our focus has been on a four year track for students where it's if you want to have a high paying job then some would say that you need to go to a four year college which is an awesome opportunity for so many and so many have found great success and it's a wonderful path that's a path that we have mastered you know we have a path for those students for a technical vocational path it hasn't been clear and information on the opportunities through a technical vocational path hasn't been conveyed so well to students because the job outlook for so many of those careers and the high paying wages that go along with it are really positive and so it's giving students that opportunity to learn about that as well and so we're not it's open to all students I think that you know we want to make sure that all students have that opportunity to transition because high school that's what it's about you know one of the side bars as we talk about students that we've noticed is we have students do a survey when they've completed an academy as well as check their transcript and see how they're doing and one of the things that we've noticed is that grade point average has gone up substantially outside even of the academies yes because they're suddenly interested in school and parents who have students complete an academy we do I'm not sure what you have decided to do but when a student completes an academy we do awards and courts recognition and actually give them an honor cord upon graduation so they're recognized at graduation oh that's interesting and what we've also discovered is that families are becoming much more interested and many families will say when their students go through graduation and they're walking down the aisle with their green cord on families will stop us after graduation ceremonies and say you know my son suddenly became or my daughter suddenly became interested or this is the first time my child has ever completed something and so it's you know there are all sorts of other benefits that we don't necessarily see even outside of the academy you see it in a different way oh interesting let's see if we can try to put almost like a face on this a little bit could you tell us maybe an anecdote about a student that perhaps has succeeded and didn't maybe expect to or something she or he learned through their experience well yes when our approach to academies as I said is a little different and that is we do not have any criteria for a student getting into an academy when they take the first course then if they say oh this is wonderful that's we've been successful or if they say oh my gosh what was I thinking we've always also been successful and because that first course definitely will tell them whether or not this is their interest and one of the things that we had a particular student who completed an academy and came back two years later and said I want to talk to you because she was in a health careers academy and she said I discovered how exciting this was when I had the work base experience and so she's now working as a dietician in a hospital based on going through that academy oh interesting we've also had a student who or we've had many students who will come back now and say you know I was going to do this but after I took this course now I'm doing this the other thing that is sort of a sidebar is that students can see how they can match their interest as well as their skills so we have a graphic student that was actually very interested in hunting and he's now working for a company that does absolutely nothing but design things for outdoor magazines so if they find something that they're interested and then they compare it with a hobby or a passion then they're even more successful and correct me if I'm wrong but there's going to be just as much benefit for a student who thinks that he or she wants to go into nursing starts and then finds out oh my gosh this isn't for me we've talked about that a lot it's an absolute benefit to find that out in high school before you enter college pay for tuition and then enter the world of work to learn it's not something that is beneficial it's good for the student to know it's good for the employers because employers want to hire a person who is knowledgeable on their own interests and strengths and knowledgeable about the career that they're going into about the job that they're trying to achieve or trying to obtain and so it's that is a big benefit when a student enters an internship for example a nine week internship in which they'll earn high school credit for and they're able to see the real world intricacies of the occupation and to walk away and saying you know what not for me is a benefit and they've learned from that experience it's a great I think that's great because you can learn what you like and what you don't like as well I want to ask some of the more technical questions but I mean as a parent is there a cost or how are costs applied for the programs how do those work for there isn't a cost it's entirely free so for Bemidji High School students will they're introduced to the various academies and each year we'll add on additional academies so next year we're looking at adding on at least three additional academies they register for it and we have students identified as that particular interest encourage them to take courses that are within the academy and then partake in work seminar a real world experience but in addition to that you know of course there's no cost involved at all trying to identify now what specifically students within academy will do each year and so each freshman year, sophomore year, junior year and senior year there's going to be a specific objective for academy students and the objective will encompass that community involvement in some form getting students connected to employers and community experts we have been very lucky that we have been funded by the Otto Bremmer Foundation and now National Joint Powers and so these grant funds have allowed all of the services to be free so job shadows tours, any kind of business experience, speakers in the classroom all of those are free to students or schools Interesting so I'm assuming you're getting the word out to students and you know you've been doing it for years I get but you got some parents tuning in now who are probably thinking my kid hasn't told me a word about these opportunities what would you want parents to know is there something you would want them to kind of keep in mind as they start having discussions with their students? Yes I would certainly if their school lies within the National Joint Powers region or region 5 that their schools are all eligible for or have career academies on site so they can certainly go to our website and gather information but one of the most important things I would like them to know is that the careers are important to kids and make sure that when you speak to your children you'll listen to not only their interests but also their skills and see if you could match them I think conversation is fantastic I remember in high school talking with my parents about it and my mom looked at me and she said Jenny I think you need to be a school counselor and at the time I didn't really get what she was saying at the time it was difficult for me to grasp that but parents really know and are always thinking about where their child is going to be in the future so having those conversations I think is very beneficial and researching the opportunities that we have at the high school and in Brainerd looking at what is available for students and encouraging students to embrace those opportunities because it is very preparatory with future success and I want to thank you guys both for joining me today I think we've learned a lot about the programs about the opportunities that exist in bridges and also in developing here in Bemidji career academies so thanks for tuning in to this tonight please join us on our next episode