High Yield Activity: Treasure Maps

Here's another activity that you can use for the Career Launch program. It's also a great activity for August because it's National Pirate Month (and who doesn't love a good pirate activity?!?)

Target Area: Art Studio

Objective: Youth learn to set long-term goals and plan paths to their futures.

Target Age Group: Teens 13-15 years

Time to Complete: 2-45 minute rotations (1.5 hours total)

Materials Needed: Pencils, pens, construction paper, makers, computers

Skills Taught: Goal Setting

Instructions:

Have members write their names at the top of sheet of construction paper. Ask them to think of a dream job or a long-term goal for their future. What would they like to do or be when they get older? Have them write this goal at the bottom of the page.

Then, have members use the Internet to research things they would need to do in order to reach this goal (e.g. finish high school, go to college, save money). If necessary, help members break these down into more short-term goals (e.g. work hard in school, get good grades, graduate from high school).

Instruct youth to write these short term goals on the paper, scattering them around the middle of the page. Ask them to draw a line showing the "path" to the treasure, from their name through the short term goals to the big dream at the bottom of the page.

Allow time for youth to decorate their maps so they look like maps that lead to a hidden treasure.

High Yield Activity - Career Alphabet

We're always looking for a fun new way to reach our required numbers in targeted programs without having the kids do the same things over and over. This is a high yield activity adapted from a 2012 resource from national. In that resource, teens used a career launch specific website that is no longer functional but this can easily be replaced with Google (or any other search engine).

Target Club Area: Computer Lab/Tech Center

Core Program Area: Character & Leadership Development

Objective: Teens gain knowledge about various careers, and the types of training and education needed to pursue them.

Age Group: Teens 13-15 years

Time to Complete: 45 minute rotation

Materials Needed: Computers or tablets with search feature, paper, pens/pencils

Skills Taught: Career Exploration

Instructions:

Tell teens to write at least one career that starts with each letter of the alphabet (e.g. A=astronaut). Make it a completion by awarding a prize to the member who can come up with the most career titles in the shortest amount of time. After teen shave completed the activity, discuss the career titles with the entire group.

Extension: 

After the teens have completed the alphabet activity, have them circle at least three careers they would like to explore. Have them research to find additional information on their career choices, including the educational requirements, licenses, training, and salary.

Graphics used in this post are from Thistle Girl Designs, now closed
Original activity idea found in The Outcome-Driven Club Experience in Action July 2012

World Post Day

According to the Universal Postal Union's website, the purpose of Universal Post Day is to "bring awareness to the Post's role in the everyday lives of people and businesses, as well as its contribution to global social and economic development". This holiday seemed like an open invitation to showcase a Career Exploration into a postal career. An easy way to accomplish this could be to have a mail carrier or post master visit your group and discuss their career. Another idea could be to take your group to the local post office for a tour. 

You could also put together a project that shows just how amazing our mail service is. We've got a project in the works to start a pen pal club with a group I met at a recent conference. When we send them our package, I'm adding tracking service to it so that our kids can see how far their package travels each day on it's way to our new friends. Some learning activities involved with this are going to be using technology to determine the distance between our club and theirs and to find out how long it would take to travel if we drove the club bus, took a flight on an airplane, or walked. Then we'll compare how long it takes our package to arrive at it's destination.

Have you had a Career Exploration with someone working in the Postal Service? Have you had experiences with having a group pen pal exchange? Let me know!