Community
For one day last week, Sleeping Giant Middle School seventh graders had an unusually large classroom.
It included a farm, horses and foals, drones, plants, the Montana State University Student Union, a college campus… and dozens of adults willing to share what they know with young people.
On September 10th, Community School Collaborative brought the entire SGMS seventh-grade class to Montana State University for a Career Day built around exploration. The idea behind the day was simple: young people cannot imagine possibilities they have never encountered.
CSC is an independent Park County nonprofit that provides career exploration opportunities to local youth at no cost. Its programs are designed to help students expand their sense of what is possible, build relationships with adults in their community and begin developing the skills that will eventually help them enter the workforce.
At MSU, that mission came to life through five very different experiences.
Students met horses and learned about research careers. They discovered how drones and other technology are changing agriculture. They explored plant science and ecosystems, investigating plants and weeds through the lens of land resources and environmental science.
But one of the day's lessons required almost no equipment at all.
At a 4-H station focused on durable skills, groups of students stood on a tarp. Their challenge was to flip the tarp over while everyone remained standing on it. And they couldn't talk.
Suddenly, communication meant eye contact, gestures and paying close attention. Leadership didn't necessarily belong to the loudest person. Students had to notice one another's ideas, cooperate, adjust their strategy and understand that being a good teammate sometimes means both leading and following.
It was a game. Yet it was also workforce preparation.
The afternoon offered a different kind of exploration. Students ate lunch in the Student Union Building before MSU Admissions staff took them on a campus tour. The original itinerary deliberately gave every student time to explore, ask questions and discover what MSU has to offer.
For seventh graders, college can seem impossibly distant. Walking through a residence hall or imagining where college students eat, study and spend their days can transform “college” from an abstract idea into a place where they might someday belong.
That sense of possibility is what CSC Career Days are designed to create CSC is giving students opportunities to discover some of the career options out there and to meet adults who show them that there are many different ways to build a meaningful life.
And none of that happens without people.
CSC is grateful to Assistant Dean Elizabeth Greenfield and the many MSU professionals who created and led the morning experiences: Dr. Amanda Bradberry, Kenzie Mork, Dr. Carol Vasco, Cole Woldowsky, Kylee Finn, Olivia Schwartz, Eric Cassetta, Sophie Lattes, Tracey Robecker and the 4-H team. Jo Moore and the MSU Admissions Department created the afternoon campus experience, while Ryan Richer helped make lunch for an entire seventh grade run smoothly.
Closer to home, volunteers Mr. Mowrey, Ms. Holycross, Dr. Brutger, Ms. Rodgers and Ms. Baker spent the day accompanying students. SGMS teachers Ms. Clark, Ms. Sullivan, Mr. James, Ms. Young-Dahl and Mr. Raw helped lead their groups, joined by National Honor Society student volunteers Ed and Kennah.
Together, all of those people gave Park County students something difficult to provide inside a classroom: a chance to step into the larger world and begin imagining their place in it.
And CSC needs more community members to be part of the next one.
The next Career Day is approaching, and volunteers are needed to accompany student groups. Learn more and sign up at csc4kids.org. Donations to help CSC continue providing these experiences to Park County youth at no cost can also be made through the website.
A community's future workforce is sitting in today's middle school classrooms. Helping those students imagine what comes next is something the whole community can do.