We welcome mentors who can support the students as they figure out what they are passionate about and where this leads them in relation to their possible career choices. It's about peeling back the onion to the layer of interests and natural abilities and helping students research wide and deep from the very beginning. From there, the students can explore specific career areas with support from you, their amazing mentors. With a sincere and grateful heart, we thank you for your partnership.

This project is intended to engage 7th grade Language Arts students, at Trail Ridge Middle school, in thinking about their gifts and talents in relation to career choices. Once a student identifies a particular career, based on not only their own gifts and talents, but also certain character and personality traits they possess, each student will research a career pathway. They will research a high school plan of study, as well as college or trade school options. Each student will also research the financial feasibility of their choices, looking at grants, scholarships and loans. As a final project, students will create a presentation to their classmates reflecting everything they've learned along the journey.

This classroom guidance will cover the following in Language Arts & Math: Critical thinking and analysis,research for small project presentation, critical thinking and written collaboration, primary source for research, business letter writing/email in proper format, oral presentations and math computation, research primary (with mentor) and secondary (the Internet) and life style choices .

12

College & Career Exploration

Each student will have knowledge of the six career clusters, will know their personality type, will know and understand their own personal strengths that relate directly to their career of choice. Each student will know the difference between a grant, scholarship and a loan. Each student will understand how much college costs and how it can be paid for. Each student will have experiences communicating with a professional in their career cluster. Each student will understand the job availability in their career choice.

Students will have rubrics for their business letters, their plans of study, (which will include high school coursework and college schedules they create) and their oral final presentations. They will receive a grade for these three assignments. Students will use College in Colorado to house their career choices. They will use Google Classroom to house all other information.

Mentors will communicate with student two times a week through email. Mentors will be supportive and give sound advice and feedback for their student concerning his/her career choices, pathways of study and how these two things align. Mentors will encourage students on their personal journeys of discovering what they are passionate about in life.