Thank you to Tina Lamb, College & Career Academy coach, for inviting me to participate in mock interviews Wednesday with Jefferson High School students.
It was a rewarding experience. I met eight students and I enjoyed my conversations with all of them.
The purpose of the session was to prepare students for real-world interviews.
“This is a meaningful experience for our students, and you helped them prepare for life outside of high school. I hope you enjoyed your time with our students. I heard this morning that there was a lot of positive energy in the building yesterday from students sharing their experience. …,” Lamb wrote in a follow up email.
Each student was nervous – make that very nervous. That showed me they cared about the process and took it seriously. They were well-mannered, but had difficulty talking about themselves without being prompted. They impressed me with how responsible they were and how much they wanted to make their parents proud.
I was surprised that only one of them mentioned video games as an interest/hobby. They preferred physical activities such as sports, dance, walking dogs or riding and caring for horses.
Two of them I would have hired on the spot. The others needed more polish before they were ready for a real job interview.
I also was impressed by the level of community involvement. There were 41 volunteers who interviewed approximately 425 students.
The experience at Jefferson affirmed what I had witnessed during tours of four high schools. Smart, dedicated students striving to be the best versions of themselves.
Yes, there are plenty of challenges within the schools, but too often we fixate on the bad things going on. There’s plenty of good.
