Junior Achievement Helps High Schools Meet New Graduation Requirements
JA Partnered with Guilford High School to provide career readiness programming required for their students to graduate
Author: Misty Amarena
Work Readiness
Published:
Thursday, 21 Dec 2023
Sharing
Image caption: Career Day with JA at GHS
During the 2022-23 school year, Junior Achievement of Southwest New England (JA) became a critical partner of Guilford High School’s (GHS) Mastery Based Diploma Assessment (MBDA) Curriculum.
The purpose of GHS’s MBDA graduation requirement is to assess students’ embodiment of the skills described in the Guilford Public Schools Portrait of a Graduate – to show they are adaptable learners, responsible collaborators, effective communicators, critical thinkers, empathetic individuals, and global citizens. GHS and JA partnered to design real world experiences around career readiness and financial literacy to help students work toward developing some of the competencies in the Portrait of the Graduate. From Resume Workshops, Credit & Debt Workshops, and Mock Interviews to Career Exploration Days and on-site Job Shadows, JA’s nationally recognized curriculum and vast partnerships with the business community help schools bridge the gap to meet new MBDA requirements that help students become more competitive in the global economy.
“We have created new, easy to deploy career-readiness and financial literacy programs to align with your [state mandated] strategic priorities and are excited to share these developments with you. The success we experienced at Guilford High School is something we hope to replicate with every school in the state.” - Jeremy Race, President & CEO of Junior Achievement of Southwest New England
Image caption: Resume Workshop and Mock Interviews
JA and Guilford High School exceeded MBDA graduation requirements around career education. JA held Resume Workshops for over 200 juniors, held more than 250 Mock Interviews with the junior class, and held a Career Day with over 15 different organizations representing a range of career options. JA also held a Financial Literacy Workshop for over 175 seniors focusing on income, credit/debit, and owning vs leasing cars.
“Working with Josh Kelley and the entire Junior Achievement organization provided our students several first hand opportunities to work with professionals this year. Our students appreciated guest lessons from professionals about financial literacy and resume building, a career day, and mock interviews, all sponsored by JA. The organization of the events, from training calls to ordering coffee and lunch for our volunteers made these events possible as well as professional. We are looking forward to expanding the opportunities for our students next year and encourage other schools to take advantage of what Junior Achievement has to offer!”
- Angela Russo, MBDA teacher and Jane Natoli, Literacy Coach, Guilford High School
Career Readiness stands as one of the three main pathways JA offers to ensure every student is empowered in their future successes both near and far – from high school graduation to landing their dream job.
Select a button below to see how you or your organization can get involved with Junior Achievement of Southwest New England, Inc..
Donate Volunteer Request A Program