Project: Fall 2016 12th Gr. College and Career Exploration

Step Description Expected Student Results
1 Topic Selection
Student Task: The student will write an introductory letter
to his or her mentor describing student's interests and
activities. Student will include a description of his or her
area of primary career interest, citing specific reasons
this career is of interest. Student will submit a paragraph
and will be matched with a mentor who has interest and/or
experience in that area.

Mentor Role: The mentor will write a letter introducing
himself to the student and reply to the student letter by
asking probing questions about student interests and
offering his/her own insight.
 PORTFOLIO ENTRY ONE:

1. Introductory letter from student to mentor.

2. Student response to mentor's introductory letter. Student
will answer questions posed by mentor and thank mentor for
his/her willingness to participate in the project.
2 Portfolio Entry Two

Resume
Student Task: The student will create a resume of high
school activities in preparation for college entrance
applications and scholarship applications.
Mentor Role: The mentor will share his professional resume
with the student. After receiving the student's resume, the
mentor will discuss the differences and similarities of the
two and reasons for the differences.
1. Typed resume including the following:
GPA and Class Rank
ACT/SAT score
School activities by grade
Honors and Distinctions by grade
Honors, AP, and College classes completed
Community service including project,specific activity,
and hours participated.
Work Experience
Future Plans
Hobbies
Personal hardships/obstacles overcome

2. Request letters of recommendation from adults that know
and respect your interests, abilities, and work performance.
 Resume
Student Task: The student will create a resume of high
school activities in preparation for college entrance
applications and scholarship applications.
Mentor Role: The mentor will share his professional resume
with the student. After receiving the student's resume, the
mentor will discuss the differences and similarities of the
two and reasons for the differences.
1. Typed resume including the following:
GPA and Class Rank
ACT/SAT score
School activities by grade
Honors and Distinctions by grade
Honors, AP, and College classes completed
Community service including project,specific activity,
and hours participated.
Work Experience
Future Plans
Hobbies
Personal hardships/obstacles overcome

2. Request letters of recommendation from adults that know
and respect your interests, abilities, and work performance.
3 Portfolio Entry Three
Information Seeking Strategies – Exploring Universities and
Colleges that Specialize in Career Interest

Mentor Task: Assist students as they research specific
information for their top choice colleges/universities.
Help students research to compare/contrast schools and
ensure that the schools have strong programs in their
academic/career areas of interest. Suggest
keywords/websites student can use to locate information on
universities and colleges on the internet.

Student Task: The student will use the Internet to research
universities/colleges of interest that have respected
programs in their chosen career field.

Students will research admissions requirements and cost of
attendance information and prepare an entry detailing that
information for each institution. In addition to expenses
set by the university (tuition, room, board, and fees),
students will include estimated expenses associated with
college attendance (books, personal supplies, transportation
costs, and other expenses)and will include them in their
overall estimated cost.

Students will research TOPS requirements and will include
the amount of money they expect to receive from the TOPS
program for college using LOFSA estimates for the coming
year. They may deduct that amount from their estimated
expenses if they plan to attend a Louisiana public college
and have the required GPA and ACT/SAT scores for the TOPS
award.
PORTFOLIO ENTRY THREE:

The third portfolio entry will be a student-created document
that includes detailed information on universities that
students are interested in attending after high school
graduation. The format (spreadsheet, Word document, etc) is
left up to the student.

Portfolio 3 will include the following information about
three colleges/universities of interest:

Location of the college/university and website address
Distance from home
Application deadlines for the current year
Scholarship application deadlines for current year

College/University Admissions requirements, including:
1. Minimum ACT or SAT scores
2. Grade point average
3. Any possible portfolios, community service, or any other
requirements for admission to their particular department of
interest. (Example: students entering certain art/graphic
design programs at some schools are required to submit a
portfolio of their work for evaluation before being accepted
to that department as an undergraduate.)

Cost of attendance information entries should be organized
by university and will include the following information:

Tuition costs based on either quarters (LA Tech) or
semesters (most other schools)
Room and board (housing and food --consider whether living
on campus or off when calculating cost. Also, find out what
requirements the university has for students to live off-
campus.)
Required fees
Estimate expenses for books, personal supplies,
transportation costs, eating out, and other expenses to
include in overall estimated cost.

List TOPS requirements and include the amount of money you
expect to receive from the TOPS program for college using
LOFSA estimates for the coming year. Deduct that amount from
your estimated expenses if you plan to attend a Louisiana
public college and have the required GPA and ACT/SAT scores
for the TOPS award.

Conclude with an estimated cost of attendance quarter per
semester (or quarter) and per year for each university of
interest. This will assist you in budgeting and in
determining how much money you will need to obtain through
scholarships/loans/grants/etc in order to attend each
university if you choose to do so next year.



4 Information Seeking from University Contacts-

Mentor Task: The mentor will assist the students in
creating information-seeking questions for key personnel at
their top universities of interest. They will help students
identify and make contact with an admissions staff
representative and with an advisor in their student's
academic major department of interest during this step.

Student Task: Students will create meaningful, information-
seeking questions to ask college admissions counselors and
advisors in their college major departments.

Students will identify and list key personnel in the
admissions office and in their college major department of
interest at their top choice university. Students will make
an e-mail or phone contact to obtain specific information
about what each college/university offers to assist them in
making the best decisions.

PORTFOLIO ENTRY Four:

Students will collaborate with mentors to develop a list of
at least five information-seeking questions to ask the
admissions department and five questions to ask an academic
advisor in their department of interest.

Students will create an e-mail or phone contact list of key
university personnel in the admissions department and in
their academic major department at their three chosen
colleges.

Portfolio 5 will include:
1. List of questions student and mentor created for student
to ask college admissions office and another list to ask an
academic advisor in their college department of interest.
Each list must include a minimum of five questions that will
aid the student in making decisions about what university
and major would be best for them.

2. Contact list for top college/university including:

1.Admissions office mailing address, e-mail, and phone
number and name of specific individual or individuals that
are main contacts in the admissions department

2. Name/contact information for an academic advisor in the
student's academic major of interest.



5 Analyzing Information from College and University Contacts:

Mentor Task: The mentor will assist students as they analyze
information obtained from college/university contacts in
step four and help students consider options for the best
college opportunities for them. This step will begin in
October and end November 20 to allow students to work over a
long period of time with mentor help during the process.

Mentors will assist students by helping them search for
scholarship opportunities, reading application and/or
scholarship essays if needed, and providing feedback as
students consider opportunities.

Student Task: The students will share information obtained
from e-mail, phone, and/or personal campus contacts with
mentor and begin college application process.
PORTFOLIO ENTRY FIVE:

Students will analyze information learned from e-mail,
phone, and/or personal visits to their universities of
choice and reflect on what they learned. They will discuss
strengths and weaknesses of various university programs with
their mentors and will ask additional questions of the
university admissions counselors and academic advisors as
needed during this step.

Students will begin college/university applications online
and will e-mail mentors with questions. Students should
apply to a minimum of three colleges/universities of
interest if at all possible.

Students will research college scholarship opportunities and
begin folders in class for each scholarship application they
are working on. They will update mentors with progress on
college and scholarship applications.

Portfolio 6 will include:
1. A list of university contacts that they have made and
what they learned through those interactions.
2. A list of college application and primary scholarship
deadlines for the year for their schools of interest.
3. A list of applications and updates about status of their
progress in completing college applications.
4. A list of scholarship applications they are working on,
including the due dates and reflection on their
qualifications for the awards.
6 Information Seeking Strategies – Developing and submitting
interview questions

Mentor Task: Ask the student what questions they think would
be important in an interview. Discuss with the student
differences in an oral interview and in an e-mail interview.
Stress to the student the importance of correct grammar and
punctuation in an interview. Review and help students revise
interview questions.

Assist student by identifying and contacting potential
individuals currently working in the student's field of
interest or personnel working in the university the student
is researching, locating e-mail addresses for contacts, and
send student questions to the interview subjects once they
are completed. Professional organization websites are
excellent resources for identifying and contacting top
professionals.

Student Task: The student will work with the mentor to
develop questions for the e-mail interviews. They will also
write a note explaining their career interest and purpose of
their research.

 PORTFOLIO ENTRY SIX:

Will be a list of top professionals in the field that the
student would like to send interview questions to. These
professionals may be local, state, national, or
international experts.

Step 6 portfolio entry will be a short note written to a
professional person explaining your career interest and the
purpose of your research and containing a typed list of ten
questions for an e-mail interview that have been generated
and revised through student/mentor communication.

Student Task: The student will work with the mentor to
create/compose/develop a short introductory paragraph to a
professional working in their field of interest. The
introductory paragraph should be a note explaining their
career interest and purpose of their research.

Write a draft of your letter to a professional then save it
and also upload it to your mentor for suggestions and
approval.

Example of a letter to a professional:
Dear Professional,
I am a ninth grade student in Louisiana and am interested in
the career field of chemical engineering (you fill in your
selected career field). I am researching this field as part
of a class project with the help of a professional mentor
through the International Telementor Program this semester
and have developed some interview questions to help me learn
more about this field. If you are willing to answer my
questions, I know it would help me to expand my
understanding about what it takes to be a professional in
this career field. Please send your answers to my mentor
through his/her (you fill in which one it is and delete the
other one) e-mail and he/she (select one and delete the
other one) will send them to me. Thank you very much for
your time and for considering this request.
Sincerely,
Your First Name

After you have created your letter, develop a list of ten
interview questions using the following guidelines.

Student Task: The student will work with the mentor to
create ten interview questions for the e-mail interviews.
Students should consider the sample interview questions
provided by their teacher and should brainstorm additional
questions that they are most interested in finding out from
professionals in their career field of interest. Students
should write questions in such a way that they cannot be
answered with one word or yes/no answers and so that each
question will elicit a generous amount of information
interesting to the student. DO NOT JUST COPY/PASTE THE
SAMPLE QUESTIONS! Really think about what YOU want to know
and revise them accordingly.

Send the messages to your mentor for suggestions and
editing. Incorporate their feedback into the final version
of your interview questions and send back a final copy. TELL
YOUR MENTOR WHEN YOU ARE DONE EDITING THE QUESTIONS AND
WOULD LIKE THEM TO GO AHEAD AND SEND THEM TO PROFESSIONALS!

SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (modify to fit your
interests/career field and work with your mentor to make
them the best they can be!)
1. Please describe your current job title and position and
responsibilities including some of the daily tasks you
perform.
2. What classes did you take in high school and college that
you feel were the most helpful in preparing you for this
career?
3. What type and level of education did you have in order to
qualify for your current position and what
university/college do you believe has the best educational
program for my area of interest?
4. Please describe the physical work environment of your
work place.
5. What type of other professionals do you work very closely
with on a regular basis?
6. Do you consider your work to be interesting? Why or why
not?
7. Please describe what you consider to be the most
enjoyable and least enjoyable parts of your job and why you
feel this way.
8. What are some of the biggest challenges a professional in
your position deals with on a regular basis?
9. Knowing what you have experienced in your professional
life and the future outlook for this career, would you still
select this career for yourself and would you recommend it
to someone my age? Why or why not?
10. Is there any additional advice you have for someone my
age who is interested in this field?
Thank you very much for answering my interview questions! I
know your responses will help me in the future as I work
towards my education and career goals.

Sincerely,
Your first name
Bossier City, Louisiana




Student Question: What do I do after submitting my interview
letter and questions to my mentor?
Answer: After questions are submitted, the student will have
to wait for responses. This sometimes takes several weeks.
During this time, the student will continue to research and
work on unfinished research and writing for other
portfolios.

Student Task: Students will receive interviews back at
different times, depending on when professionals have the
opportunity to respond. This process may take several weeks
or even a month or more. STUDENTS WILL CONTINUE WORKING ON
THEIR OTHER PORTFOLIO RESEARCH AND WRITING WHILE WAITING FOR
INTERVIEWS TO BE RETURNED BUT SHOULD STOP IMMEDIATELY AND
RESPOND TO EACH INTERVIEW AS IT IS RECEIVED!


As each interview is posted for the student, they will stop
whatever other research they are doing immediately and will
write an appropriate thank you note back to the professional
following the guidelines provided by the teacher. Thank you
note guidelines have been provided by the teacher and
students have been given a written copy of them to follow as
well.

Students should respond to the interview with a thank you
note within two days after receiving the interview and then
will work on a summary of the interview as well. THE THANK
YOU NOTE ALWAYS COMES FIRST because it is extremely
important that the professionals who respond know that their
time and efforts are appreciated by the student! As soon as
the thank you note is written, it should be uploaded to the
mentor so that he/she can send it to the professional
immediately.

7 Conducting and Analyzing Interviews

Mentor Task: The mentor will send and receive the student's
interview questions to three professionals working in the
career field of student interest. When answers are received
from the professionals, mentors will forward the messages to
students through the telementor site.

Student Task: Students will read and analyze information
provided by the professionals. They will record contact
information for each professional and write a portfolio
entry detailing information from each professional
interview. In addition to including the information
provided by the professionals, students will include any new
insights they learned about their career of interest.
Student Task: Preparing Letter of Thanks:
The student will create a letter of thanks specifically
tailored for each of their interview subjects. Each of the
professionals who were contacted for interviews about the
area of interest should receive a personalized letter of
thanks. The information in the letter should refer to the
student's skill and interest as evidenced by the interview.
The individuals' contact information will be a part of the
action plan and letters of reference will be maintained in
the student's portfolio.

Mentor's Task: Mentors will read student's letter of thanks
and will write suggestions for improvement in content,
grammar, or punctuation and send them to the student.
Student will make modifications and send letter back to
mentor for final approval.


PORTFOLIO ENTRY SEVEN:

Portfolio Entry Eight will be a typed paragraph including
the names of three professionals working in the student's
field of interest and contact information. Students will
write an entry summarizing the advice/information about the
career using information provided by the professional who
responded to their interview questions and will upload their
paragraph to mentor for suggestions and evaluation.

Students will read and analyze information provided by the
professionals and write a portfolio entry detailing
information from each professional interview. In addition to
including the information provided by the professionals,
students will include any new insights they learned about
their career of interest.

The student will reflect on the interviews and the process
by recording his/her thoughts about the success of the
interview and any new insights about the career interest.

Student will upload this page for the mentor to review.

Student Task: Preparing Letter of Thanks:
As each interview is received from the professionals who
were contacted by the student and mentor, the student will
create a letter of thanks specifically tailored for each of
their interview subjects. Each of the professionals who were
contacted for interviews about the area of interest should
receive a personalized letter of thanks.

The information in the letter should refer to the student's
skill and interest as evidenced by the interview. The
individuals' contact information will be a part of the
action plan and letters of reference will be maintained in
the student's portfolio.

The student will create a letter of thanks specifically
tailored for each of the professionals who answered their
questions.

Thank you letters may not be generic "thank you for helping
me..." types of letters. Remember that these professionals
have taken valuable time to write to you and share their
advice with you, so you should take the time to thoughtfully
write a response.

Each personalized letter of thanks should include references
to specific pieces of information contained in the interview
response that helped students or attracted their particular
attention.

Here are just a few possible examples of how to work
specific pieces of valuable information from the interview
back into your thank you note to show the professionals that
you both READ carefully and TRULY do appreciate their help!

Thank you for sharing the information about...with me.

I thought it was particularly interesting when you said....

Your advice about ....will be of help in the future
because...

I appreciated when you mentioned ....because...

I didn't know that ...

Your emphasis on ...was very interesting to me because...

Students will send a draft of each thank you note to their
mentor for feedback. They will make suggested corrections
and upload the note for final approval from the mentor.

After thank you note has been approved, student will print a
copy of their letter of thanks for their portfolio.


The student will send the letters to their mentor for
feedback and make the changes/additions suggested by their
mentor before sending.

The student will print a copy of his/her formal letter of
thanks. In addition, the student will type a list of names
of each professional who was contacted and the date thank
you notes were sent. Students will turn this information
into teacher by a specific deadline.



8 College Schedule and Plan of Action

Mentor Task:
While waiting for interviews to come back from
professionals, the mentor will guide student as he/she
researches specific course requirements for their chosen
major fields of study. Mentors will advise students as they
create schedules. They will remind them to consider and
explore CLEP test opportunities (College Level Examination
Program) that allow students to receive credit for some
college courses through testing if they have prior content
mastery) and AP tests.

Mentors will also access college websites to look at course
requirements at their student's chosen school and major and
help them as they develop a schedule based on the course
recommendations on their college site.

Student Task:
The student will research and record course requirements for
chosen major field (number of credits, names of required
classes, etc) Include the total number of credit hours
required for graduation in your portfolio entry.


Student Task:
Create a schedule for your freshman-senior years based on
the major you have chosen. Many universities have this
already listed by specific major in their catalog or online.
PORTFOLIO NUMBER EIGHT:

1. Schedule for your freshman-senior years based on the
major you have chosen. Many universities have this already
listed by specific major in their catalog or online. Print
the four year schedule for your curriculum from your college
of choice.

The following steps should be considered when creating the
four-year academic class schedule:

2. List of dual and/or college credit courses taken during
high school. Check the Articulation System of the Louisiana
Board of Regents to determine whether your university of
choice will accept credits from BPCC, LSUS, or wherever you
took classes during high school. The website is:
www.regents.state.la.us/Academic/articulation_2009-2010.htm

3. Identify and list any prerequisites (required courses or
ACT scores) that you will need before taking the required
courses listed for freshmen. What could you do between now
and then to become more fully prepared?

4. Determine and list undergraduate prerequisite courses
necessary for acceptance into a graduate or professional
program in your career area upon the completion of an
undergraduate degree. (Examples of graduate or professional
programs include graduate school, medical school, law
school, pharmacy school, and veterinary school.)
9 Creating a Plan of Action and Personal Mission Statement

From all the information that has been gathered, the student
will compile the portfolio and work on a plan to follow.
The plan will outline in detail the steps that are needed
for the student to be successful in his/her
college/preprofessional preparation and in their career of
interest. It will include courses to take, internships, and
jobs to have, contacts to make and any other information
that the mentor and student decide is important for the
particular area


Student Task: The student will create a plan of action and
education and career portfolio that includes the following
information:

Create an education and career plan of action that contains
the following information:

A. Current career goal
B. College or university
C. Undergraduate major
D. Graduate or professional school
E. Areas to address in the upcoming semester (personal
and academic)
F. Academic and personal goals that will lead to
professional success
G. Summer experiences, part-time jobs, and/or
internships
H. College extracurricular activities (including
professional organizations and intramurals)
I. Plan for first year after college

Creating a Personal Mission Statement:

Student Task: Students will explore mission statements from
various sources and create a Personal Mission Statement
using the following guidelines. They will consult with their
teacher and mentor while developing their Mission Statement.

The mission statement is a brief description of what the
student wishes to accomplish and what he wishes to become in
a particular area of his life. Based on student's personal
values, a mission statement is a way to focus energy,
actions, behaviors, and decisions toward the things that are
most important to the student.
1. It should be brief - 3-5 sentences.
2. It should be positive.
3. It should guide day to day actions and decisions.
4. It should be emotional.

Mentor Role: Share his personal mission statement with the
student. If the mentor's company or professional
organization has a mission statement, he should share that
as well.
 PORTFOLIO ENTRY NINE:

This step will contain an updated student Plan of Action
that includes a 5 year plan, beginning now and extending
through the next 5 years (4 years of college plus one year
after that). In addition, students will develop a personal
mission statement and include it with this entry. They will
send this entry to their mentor for feedback.

1. Create an education and career plan of action that
contains the following information:

A. Current career goal
B. College or university
C. Undergraduate major
D. Graduate or professional school
E. Areas to address in the upcoming semester (personal
and academic)
F. Academic and personal goals that will lead to
professional success
G. Summer experiences, part-time jobs, and/or
internships
H. College extracurricular activities (including
professional organizations and intramurals)
I. Plan for first year after college

Plan of Action Template (should be modified to meet
individual student needs/actions/intent):

My primary area of interest is the field
of__________________. I plan to read ___________ to continue
learning as much about my interest as possible and to
develop positive habits. I plan on volunteering at ________
to learn more about my area of interest during the next
_____________months/years.

My current career goal is to (study, earn a degree in,
become…) ___________. In order to reach this goal, I plan
to apply to and attend_______________ university/college
(you may list alternate universities too) and major in
_________________. I will contact the _____________at my
university of interest to request information and prepare
for college entrance and success.

The high school and/or college courses (primary curriculum
areas) I am currently enrolled in that are most directly
related to my interests include ___________________. In
order to prepare for a successful start to my postsecondary
education, this semester, I am currently addressing the
following three educational, social, and/or personal goals
(list three areas)___________________ ___________________
and __________________to try to improve my chances of future
success.

To meet my goal, I plan to develop a better understanding of
the following area(s) of college/university interest
(examples: schools with excellent programs in my field of
interest, scholarships that I would qualify to receive,
activities at school, admissions standards, and so
on.)____________, _______________, ______________during the
next month. In addition, I plan to ______________during the
next two months to learn more about ____________. During my
first year of college, I plan to ________. During the
second year of college, I anticipate _______________. My
third year of college, I will be ________________. My
fourth year of college will be spent_____________________.

Five years from now I plan to_____________________. I hope
to live___________________ After that, I will
go____________________ and do________________and
be__________________. I anticipate success in my future
college and career because I have prepared
___________________. I believe I can and will meet my goals
because I am determined to _______________.




2. Personal mission statement.

3. Write a letter of advice to underclassmen in high school.
Senior Advice letter to underclassmen should include
recommended classes to take, activities to be involved in,
and other ways to prepare for their senior year throughout
high school.
10 Preparing to Share the Plan and Sharing the Plan

Student Task: The student will organize their written
portfolio to include research and written documents created
during this project. The student will create a cover sheet
for their portfolio, review his/her career portfolio and
action plan, print the entire portfolio, put it in an
appropriate binder, and turn it in for teacher evaluation
and viewing by peers and others.

Students will organize and prepare for their oral
presentation to present the information gathered during this
project to an appropriate audience.

Mentor Role: The mentor will review and critique student
work and give suggestions for oral presentations.


PORTFOLIO ENTRY Ten

The student will create a written portfolio and an oral
presentation including information gathered during this
project, college plans, scholarship information, and advice
to underclassmen for success their senior year.

The presentation will include the following major sections
developed and gathered during the mentor/student research
and student reflection.

Presentation must include:

Student's name, mentor's name and mentor's company, name of
career researched.

Names of colleges researched

Admissions requirements, tuition, and application deadlines
for each university.

Names of top professionals/university personnel at each
university and contact information

Name of university or universities where student has applied
and been accepted.

A draft of student's four or five year college course plan
(schedule) for pursuing his/her major of choice

Educational requirements for preparing for a career in
student's chosen field.

Summarized results of interviews with three professionals.

Letter of Senior Advice to underclassmen regarding
recommended classes to take, activities to be involved in,
and other ways to prepare for their senior year throughout
high school.

Student will print entire portfolio, attach cover sheet, and
bind portfolio.

Students will present their work to an appropriate audience
in class and at the AIM Gifted/Talented High School Expo.


11 Mentor and Student Tasks:
The Mentor and Student will reflect on the project's strengths
and weaknesses and express appreciation for the work they have
done.

Students Task:
Complete and share with mentor, teacher, and parents what they
have learned from the project including the factors included
in the "Integrated Model of Student Success.

The mentor and student will complete the ITP survey on the ITP
website to close project		 The student will reflect on what he/she has done this semester
and write a letter/thank you note telling the mentor what they
have learned through collaboration with them and how they feel
their collaboration throughout the project will help them in
the future.

The mentor and student will complete the ITP survey on the ITP
website to close project