Allowing students to learn about different future career opportunities is an important value at Willow Bend Elementary. It opens up the eyes of students at a young age to what options they might be interested in and how to chase after that dream.
“We love highlighting what life can look like after high school whether it be career, college, work force, military, or trade. We want to encourage our students to see the potential of their future. This means we must expose them to as many opportunities as possible,” said Jessica Neitsch, Willow Bend Counselor.
Throughout the week students participated in various dress up days to show off their school spirit. As the week continued, the excitement amongst students grew for each presentation.
“This year we celebrated each day of the week with a different slogan and dress up day. On Tuesday our theme was "Let's Dream of our Future." The students and staff wore pajamas to school, and we had Raider Red on campus to walk the halls as students cheered,” said Neitsch. “On Friday we had a BIG day, Career Day. This day takes lots of outreach and organization, but our students LOVE it. The presenters also love to come and show the students all of the career opportunities they can have.”
There were a total of 38 presentations throughout the week from individuals in Lubbock and surrounding communities. During each presentation students learned about why the presenter loves their job and how to get involved in that particular field.
“We had a large variety of presenters from places like Tom's Tree Place, Peoples Bank, KCBD, Texas Tech, Board and Brush, emergency response teams, medical related fields, military, construction, and even past Frenship students who are working for an engineering company,” said Neitsch. “Our students learn something new in each presentation and get a hands-on experience with something other than their daily academics. They are able to hear adults other than parents and school staff that love their job/career. This can be impactful and help the students learn about career opportunities that they haven't considered before.”
Willow Bend wants to give a big thank you to everyone involved in helping enlighten their students to future career opportunities.
“We know that taking time away from work is difficult. We are so grateful that community members are willing to come for a few hours to teach our students,” said Neitsch. “All presenters engage the students and show how proud they are for the work that they do for the community every day.”
College and career week directly reflects the mission of Frenship ISD, which is to educate and develop all students by providing a foundation to empower them to reach their maximum potential and realize their opportunity of choice.