STUDENT STORIES

STUDENT STORIES

Here is what students are saying:

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Julie – Hunt Middle School, Grade 8, Job Shadow at the Radisson

“They were very busy and we could barely go out from behind the desk because they had so many people. We got to learn how to deal with the customer. We learned to always be nice to them because you want them to come back to the hotel and to do everything right so they don’t get a bad impression. You have to know a lot about computers and how they work. There are a lot of different gadgets you have to learn to work.”

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Amy – Burlington High School, Grade 10, LLL Applied Curriculum Development Grant – Music Exploration

“I really liked the idea that we got to go to the Flynn a lot (Community as learning lab.) You get a better view of everything and you’re not so closed-minded about music. You learn to appreciate other types of music in this class.”

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Damien, with ASL Interpreter Dina Senesac – Burlington High School, Grade 12, LLL Transition Planning/Job Readiness Skills

“It was very important. We did mock interviews, and practiced doing it the right way, almost every day. I

learned that I had to do a good handshake and introduce myself with my name, and to have eye contact throughout the interview. We practiced what I was going to say. I learned I had to talk about my previous jobs. I have to talk about myself, about what I’m interested in, what I like to do, that I’m friendly and outgoing, that I’m very detail oriented. I learned that I should wear nice clothes and a tie. I feel like I’m ready for the interview, I’m more confident about getting the job. I’m really excited, and kind of nervous and embarrassed too. If I need some help after I graduate, I know I can come here and see Dhyana.”

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Grace – Edmunds Elementary School, Grade 1, Service Learning Grant – Service to the Elderly – Converse Home visits

“We were reading a book about bringing back elderly people’s memory, and then we decided that we should probably go to Converse Home and bring back their memory by building blocks with them. I really liked building with blocks with my friends Kay and Jack. We were making some really neat creative things. The first thing we built there was a bridge, and I think that it was fun because we got along really well and they were really nice with us. I learned about their lives when they were little and I learned about what kind of stories they had to tell us.”

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Geoffrey – Hunt Middle School, Job Shadow at Racquets Edge

“I was kind of amazed at how well everyone worked together. Like if somebody messed up, they wouldn’t

yell at them. They would say “Well, we’ve just got to try this next time, or this, to make it better. They give everyone a chance to try their best. Sort of just like school. If you are writing an essay and you mess up in the middle of it and it’s your final copy, you might get mad that you have to start all over, but if you start all over you might make it even better. You might find something that you want to add.”

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Mia – Burlington High School, Grade 10, R.E.A.L. Enterprises/Entrepreneurship

“We are definitely learning leadership skills, decision-making skills, communication skills. We have to work as a team. We can’t just go our own ways. We have assigned roles and have to do our assignments on time or we can’t go on as a class and as a team. We are managing our own store. We got to meet entrepreneurs, set up meetings with them, interview them, and write essays based on our interviews. We have to learn the business vocabulary so we can talk to them.”

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Allie – Edmunds Middle School, Grade 8, Job Shadow at Blodgett Ovens

“I think it’s important to see at an early age how things go on, so when you’re learning things in school you

know that you are going to need them in the future to do well. We followed the personnel manager, and he said that algebra was one of the most important skills that he learned because he does a lot of graphing and things like that. I think the most important thing we learned was that what you learn in school is really going to be important in your life, and that it is for a purpose, and the teachers don’t want to torture you with work, they want you to do well in life. It makes more people want to learn. I expected to talk with people and learn about their jobs, and that we would make pizzas. I like learning about different cultures and different people’s ways of life.”

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Hoa – Burlington High School, Grade 12, College Connections at CCV

“I wanted to find out what college was like. I wanted to see what kinds of things interested me. It was a great experience for me. We learned what college work is about. The work is much different than high school. We had to keep a journal and do a lot more writing. If you do something wrong, she expects you to fix it and you go back and do it, fix it and she checks it again, instead of like keeping it to yourself. It lets you know your mistake and you learn it better. If you find something interesting, or you don’t know what to do or where you are going, you have more opportunities to explore in the Career and Work Experience course.”

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Ian – Burlington HS, Grade 12, Career Beginnings Mentorship Program

“We got to be real good friends. We talk a lot about possible jobs for me. I got to be real good friends with

Andrew. He’d gone through the ordeal of having two teenagers, so he knew how to treat me, how to give me advice. He kind of treated me like a peer, at the same time he also understood that I didn’t know. He knew how much to treat me like a peer, but he could understand that I don’t know, I haven’t gone through that stuff, and be able to give me the right kind of advice. He helped me narrow down the field a lot. He’s part of the reason I went through the Aviation Technology program as early as I did. He told me to go for it and I did.”

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Marquiest and Shanda – C.P. Smith Elementary School, Grade 4, School-to-Work Mini-grant: Book Publishing

“The man from New England Press said it takes a lot of time to write just one book. You have to go over all your words and make sure they are all right. You have to write it like five times, maybe more, because it’s not perfect. Ms. Clark says the same thing about writing, that you have to do pre-writing, proofreading, editing, you have to indent. That surprised us. I didn’t think you had to keep writing it. I thought it only took like one day to write a book. I thought it was really amazing that it can take a year to write a book.”

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Miroslav – Burlington High School, Grade 12, LLL Work Based Learning – Project SEED, UVM Biology Dept

“I wanted to experience as many things as possible and it was really great because it showed me how to do

the lab work, how to write in a journal, keep the records, taught me some lab procedures, showed me what science is really. It may be tedious sometimes but it’s fun when you get the results. You see what you did and you see the results of your work, and it’s very satisfying to do that.”