REGION — Earlier this month, Chyanna Millett-Cordwell, a Jobs For Maine Graduates (JMG) Specialist at Telstar, gave a short presentation to school board members on how the JMG program can give students a jumpstart on how to prepare for life after high school.
“JMG is a not-for-profit organization that partners with public and private businesses to help students statewide meet their fullest potential by reaching graduation, obtaining credentials of value and pursuing successful careers,” Millett-Cordwell said of the program. “JMG also offers follow up as a service to students who’ve graduated as a way to stay connected, help navigate job opportunities, and be there to support them as they chase their dreams.”
Millett-Cordwell started by touching on the different units students have done with JMG this year, which included a financial literacy section. In this unit, students chose a dream job, bought a house and car, had utilities and insurance and they had to make a grocery list that could cover an entire month.
“Everyone had fun finding out what their future may hold, what types of housing they might be able to afford and also how hard their parents or guardians had to work to get where they are now,” Millett-Cordwell said.
In their most recent unit, “hired not fired,” students have worked on how to properly introduce themselves, dress appropriately and interview for their desired career. Students are now learning how to search for employment opportunities, discover job openings and how to navigate the interviewing process.
“Using a 10-step idea, everyone will have a working resume and cover letter by the end of the unit and will have learned more about their own self confidence than they realized,” Millett-Cordwell said. “The unit will end with a summative, which will have students involved in a mock interview at Telstar.”
Millett-Cordwell said seven speakers from the surrounding area have been invited to come and discuss unit-related topics with JMG students. Moving forward, Millett-Cordwell said Telstar’s JMG program will need more speakers from the area to come and speak and eventually hopes that this will lead to local job site tours and job shadow opportunities for students.
“Creating opportunities for our children locally could help keep them in Maine,” Millett-Cordwell said. “Hopefully without COVID-19 being a barrier next year, we’ll be able to get out into the community and make a bigger impact on our area as well as offer more job opportunities, shadows or internship opportunities for our youth.”
Shye Buck, one of many Telstar students benefiting from JMG, was present at the ZOOM meeting to speak on the programs impact.
“I found JMG to be a helpful and important class and I would definitely recommend it to other students,” the sophomore said. “Adulthood is scary to me, but JMG helps ease my worries by making me feel more prepared.”
Buck said one of the most impactful lessons JMG taught her was through the job exploration unit. In this unit, Buck was assigned to look into a career that might interest her, which in her case is being a graphic designer.
Part of this included finding a bridge job, which acts as a stepping stone to the job one actually wants to do. Millett-Cordwell gave Buck the idea of doing an internship as a bridge job to becoming a graphic designer.
“I need experience before I can get the job I want. Without this class I never would have considered doing an internship beforehand,” Buck said. “Now I have a new path I want to take in my life.”
JMG has not cost the district for the first few years, but next year the district will start to take in some of the costs of the program
A lot of JMG instruction has been done through ZOOM or Google Classroom since the start of the pandemic.
Overall, 140 schools statewide are involved with JMG and the program has worked with more than 10,000 students.
To learn more about JMG visit jmg.org.
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