Success Stories

GED Graduation: The Great Dilemma

It happens every time I congratulate my newest GED graduates. I watch them proudly mount the stage, dressed in their finest, faces beaming; young women’s’ legs usually accustomed to being supported by sneakers, are now a little wobbly on newly-donned high heels. The boys I had to “shush” so many times in class are now spruced-up young men in dress-pants and ties. As they mount the stairs to the stage to receive their coveted award, they eye the person with the diplomas and hope they can make it that far without tripping. As I observe all of this with my own sense of pride for each student and their teachers, my dilemma begins. “Where do they go from here?”

This notion became painfully evident to me last year as a ten-year veteran of the Harris County Department of Education (HCDE) GED arena. Every semester we pump up our students for this moment when they will shine their brightest. We have sat patiently teaching them how to solve algebraic equations, or how to transition from the body of the essay to the conclusion. We have meticulously described the water-cycle and solar system, and used whatever tricks are up our sleeves to demonstrate how the Mesopotamians devised a water canal system. We have used movies, paintings, music, and charm to help them grasp the difference between a metaphor and a simile, all the while guaranteeing them that this knowledge will come in handy one day. We have taught them everything they need to know to get to this high point in their lives, but we have not prepared them for their futures.

“Where do they go from here?,” I wondered at the last graduation as I posed for pictures, the exalted teacher dead center in the latest family snapshot, arm around the new graduate, grandma clutching my other arm. “There has to be more than this for them.”

There is. It is called Career Awareness and Development Program (CADP) – one of HCDE’s fledgling yet thus far extremely successful programs offered to students of all English and ASE levels. After congratulating my last graduate in the Spring of 2006, I requested a meeting with my manager, Gayle Fagan, and our director, Janell Baker, to share the concerns I felt as a teacher about the directions our students were taking once they graduated. In truth over the years, at best I have had a handful of students come back to self-report that they had gone to colleges, that they had entered a training program, or found the illusive “good job” we talk about the first goal-setting day of every semester. At worst, I had heard from the majority of my students that they were not working at all, were underemployed, or had enrolled in a private business school of short duration and long loan repayments.

As an educator, I needed to know that all of my students’ hard work could amount to more than these options. Further, if I felt this way about my class of twenty or twenty-five students, how many other students in other classes were following the same path? Too many for me to ignore. So with the approval, direction, and support from both Ms. Baker and Ms. Fagan, I began to visualize what such a Career Awareness and Development Program might look like. To date, in its sixth month, the Program is shaping up quite nicely.

The CADP is a two-pronged approach to long term career and educational planning for our students. The two areas of support and direction can operate individually or in tandem. The first prong is the individual appointments segment of the program. This is a one-on-one meeting I have with students who have questions about their future study or career plan. We usually meet for 30 minutes. Some come back for follow-ups, some I see only once. At minimum, we work together on a plan for their success not only at HCDE, but for their futures. This can include, but is not limited to, planning for college courses, studying for TOEFL, tweaking a resume for a specific job, or informing them of upcoming job-fairs or employment opportunities. In addition, I meet with each GED student and complete an intake form helping them to pin down a graduation date, a college major, or a career cluster they would like to pursue. In all cases, I inform the students of the extra services offered at the Irvington Learning Center which include, Job Readiness Class, Computer Class, Skills Identification Workshops, Resume Workshops, and the Career Awareness Class, which brings me to the second prong of our CADP service.

In this 4-6 week short course offered twice a semester, we provide a career assessment using the COPES tools. After analyzing each student’s results we explore specific career clusters. From there we move into targeted resume writing, interviewing skills, and cover specialty topics such as job issues, or networking for example. The class is restricted to a small size so that I can work individually with the students and be able to hone in on their targeted area of interest. By so doing we can explore the realm possibilities for each student in a dedicated environment. I am happy to report that after the completion of the first semester, out of a class of eight, four students secured targeted employment and two are attending junior colleges in the Houston area.

There is so much more to discuss about the CADP – I have merely touched the tip of the proverbial iceberg here. In summation however, the point I most strenuously want to covey to all directors, managers, and teachers of adults is that this program is an enhancement to students’ education not a detraction. If we truly take the student’s success and place it at the epicenter of our efforts, then as educators of adults we are compelled to provide tools for lifelong learning to our students if we expect them to be fully functional in our society once they leave our hallways. So far, it’s working at HCDE. Since implementing the program in September 2006, the CADP has provided information and direction to over 150 students.

I would like to thank Janell Baker and Gayle Fagan for acknowledging my desire to provide more as a teacher, and for their confidence in my abilities to build a plane in which our students could really fly.

Janice Strohmeier is originally from Calgary, Canada where she earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Calgary. She taught ESL for several years in Calgary before arriving in Houston with her husband Paul in 1994. She has been employed with Harris County Department of Education since 1996 and has been involved in various projects and seminars dealing in a wide range of Adult Education issues. In 2006 Janice earned an M.A. in History from Sam Houston State University.