by Lauren Hoehlein, UVBEP
Intern It could be said that the
sign of an effective educational system is the depth of the
faculty's understanding of their students and the extent to
which they act on this understanding. Quite often, the most
successful educational systems are those in which the
faculty and administration make modifications to standard
curriculum and programs to accommodate particular interests
and needs of their students. If this is the case, then
Hanover High School should be heavily commended for their
innovative take on an existing program. As Partner Schools of the
Upper Valley Business and Education Partnership, Dresden
Schools are often involved with educational programs such as
Groundhog Job Shadow day, but one project just didn't quite
fit the needs of Hanover High students. Learn to Earn is a
program designed to involve members of the community and
local businesses in encouraging ninth graders to take more
advanced math, science, and technology classes in order to
expand their future career opportunities. This initiative
is taking place throughout Vermont and the Upper Valley of
New Hampshire. UVBEP was facilitating this program with
eight other partner schools, but Jon Haehnel, a ninth grade
science teacher, felt that this sort of encouragement was
not what this particular school district needed. Rather,
many of the students are often under the stressful
disillusion that they must take a certain prescribed set of
classes in order to get into a good college and achieve what
is traditionally considered to be success. With this in
mind, UVBEP worked with Mr. Haehnel and colleague Casey
Milender to design a unique program for the ninth graders of
Hanover and Norwich that stressed not only the importance of
a strong and challenging education, but equally the innate
value in listening to one's own interests, desires, and
dreams when planning ahead for the future. For this distinct
request, UVBEP asked Mike Yacavone, Founder and President,
XeniumGroup and Lynne Walker, Art Director, Lynne Walker
Design Studio, to speak to all of the ninth graders, through
science classes, about their individual experiences with a
vast array of career choices and changes, particular jobs,
and education. Between the two of them, they have held over
thirty jobs through the years, ranging from an early
experience delivering newspapers to a lucrative career in
the web design industry. They stressed the importance of
following one's intuition and passion when choosing a job,
not be afraid of changing one's career path, and to judge
success by factors such as passion, growth, and lifestyle,
in addition to money. They explained that it is quite
possible to create a job out of almost any love and passion,
and that since success can be defined in many different
ways, there is no one prescribed road towards this elusive
goal. The majority of the
students were surprised at just how many jobs the two of
them had held, and how successful they could be without
specialized educational backgrounds or degrees. As one
student said, "It was helpful to know that you could make
money and love what you do." Overall, the presentations
went very well, and though they may not have been quite in
line with the traditional Learn to Earn format, HHS truly
benefited as a result of this creative and fresh approach to
an often overlooked concept.Learn to
Earn 2002: Earning from the Heart
