August/September Update
September, 2023
Exciting New Additions to K-12 Career Awareness
Due to the overwhelming success of this program last year, we have been offered the amazing opportunity to hire a new coordinator. Her name is Amy Carey and she is amazing! Read both of our bios below.
Amy's Bio
This is my 18th year of teaching and I am so excited to begin this role working alongside Missy as a Career Awareness Coordinator. My passion has always been in early childhood and having the opportunity to introduce students of all ages to a variety of careers and helping them use this information to shape their futures is so rewarding for me.
Missy's Bio
This is my 13th year of service as an educator. My passion for education lies in helping students become successful and career-ready. I love hanging out with my friends and family. I am excited about this school year and cannot wait to see what Amy and I can accomplish in this role.
Here are some of the exciting things we will be doing this year:
K-6 Career Awareness
- Providing Career Awareness opportunities to students in our member schools
- Creating Career Awareness lessons and activities aligned to Ohio’s grade level standards
- Teaching Career Awareness lessons and activities to 2nd and 5th graders in some of our member schools
- Assisting teachers and school counselors with the successful implementation of quality Career Awareness lessons and activities
7-12 YouScience
- Assisting our member school leaders with the successful implementation of YouScience. The YouScience initiative has stemmed from an effort to expand Career Awareness and Exploration opportunities for all students in our five-county region. Through the use of YouScience, 7th through 12th-grade students will engage in aptitude tests to identify and connect their natural talents with real-world careers. From there, students will create student success plans to use as a guide for course selection, career exploration, and future planning.
- Assisting with the analysis and use of YouScience assessment results
- Assisting with the development of Student Success Plans
- Leading professional development training sessions for Penta staff and member school staff
- Planning and engaging in Career Awareness events
Welcome Back Sonia!
Sonia Herman is the new Supervisor of Curriculum & Instruction at Penta Career Center. She is from Gibsonburg, Ohio and graduated from the University of Toledo with degrees in Secondary Education, Math and Computer Science, as well as Bowling Green State University with a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration. She is excited to return to Penta Career Center, where she taught mathematics for 12 years prior to her eight years of administrative experience in the middle school and high school at Old Fort and Gibsonburg Schools. Her love of career tech education and her desire to work with educators and students to create innovative student opportunities has been the driving force of her educational career. Sonia has two adult children, Zack and Madison, and is married to her junior high school sweetheart, Dan. Spending time with her family, which includes two Goldendoodle boys, Buckeye and Sir Winston, is one of her greatest joys, especially when spent at the camper.
Welcome To Penta Rose!
Rose Wilson is the new Secretary of Curriculum & Instruction. She is from the Toledo, Ohio area. She graduated from Owens Community College with an Occupational Therapy Assistant degree and has worked school based jobs since 2004. She is excited to be a part of the Penta team. Rose and her husband have six grown children, one grandchild who lives in Hawaii, various beloved animals, and they run a food truck together on the weekends.
Career Awareness in Action
- Rossford High School, 10th Grade
- Rossford Junior High, 7th Grade
- Swanton High School, 10th Grade
- North Baltimore Middle School, 7th Grade
- Lake High School, 9th & 10th Grades
- Maumee High School, 10th Grade
- Genoa, Oak Harbor, Woodmore CBI, 10-12 Grades
- Woodmore High School, 10th Grade
Let us know if you need help implementing YouScience in your classrooms and we can put you on the calendar!
Rossford High School, 10th Grade
Lake High School, 9th & 10th Grade
Maumee High School, 10th Grade
Genoa/Oak Harbor/Woodmore Career Based Intervention
Woodmore High School, 10th Grade
Career Connections with Mrs. May
Christine May is an educator with a passion for guiding young minds. With eighteen years of teaching experience, she currently serves as a Penta Career Center Career Connections Satellite Instructor for 7th and 8th grade students at Otsego Jr. High school. Prior to this role, she held the position of a high school science teacher, sharpening her pedagogical skills.
In her current capacity, she is dedicated to shaping the future of her students by creating a comprehensive career exploration program from the ground up, making learning a hands-on and fun experience. This initiative aims to empower young learners with the tools and knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their future careers. Additionally, she co-coordinates the successful Penta summer STEM camps that host over 400 eager students each year, providing them with invaluable hands-on learning experiences.
Outside of her professional life, she cherishes time with her family, which includes five active children whose sports and activities keep her very busy. In her leisure moments, she finds joy in culinary adventures, travel, leisurely boating, and watching a great movie.
Mrs. May and her 7th grade Career Connections class hit the ground running with completing the brain games in YouScience Discovery. They took a deeper dive into the games by doing a research project on a career they found the most interesting that aligned with their aptitude and interest results. Next, they created a storyboard to showcase what it would be like for someone working in that career. Check it out below!
We completed the Brain Games. What Now? See InfoGraphic Below.
MEMBER SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT: Swanton Middle School
Meet Mr. Remer
Six years ago, the leadership at the Northwest Ohio Service Center in Archbold had a dream to hire a business person that could help bridge the gap between educational leaders and business leaders. The NWOESC is similar to a consulting firm as it provides specialty educational consultants/teachers to schools in the region. Services like substitute teachers, special education teachers, etc. There are about fifty of these ESC's throughout the state. They are funded similar to a school district and the one in Archbold has about 400 employees.
After retiring from Hewlett Packard with thirty years of service, Mike Remer chose to retire to spend more time with his family. After taking a year off he decided to substitute teach. It didn't take Mike long to find out that kids today are no different than every other generation. They're eager, they're smart, they're fun and they mess up a lot.
In some ways the ESC dream and his 2nd dream job fell in place at the same time. Swanton Local Schools Superintendent, Chris Lake, decided he wanted to begin a career class in the middle school because he found that waiting until high school was way too late. He made it known to the leaders at the ESC that he wanted to do this and they were ecstatic to support his request. They created the opening, Mike applied, interviewed and was awarded the assignment. He just began his 5th year.
Mike has two roles, he's the career coach at Swanton Middle School and his other assignment is to help bridge the gap between educators and business people. He is trying to solve the following problems:
1. Keep the best and brightest local
2. Improve workforce readiness
He plans to accomplish this by focusing on complex problem solving with students without the use of their laptops, phones or calculators. He also is teaching students to learn how to win together when they are working as a team; even if they do not like the people on their team.
Mike had a huge mural painted in the career center at SMS. The Swanton Parents Club funded the project as their way of giving back to their communities and their business leaders. Use the QR code or www.nwoesc.org/careercanvas to visit the mural and click/tap on Popeye riding his bike toward the left hand side of the mural to watch the video of how this came together. Students can now see in living color all the great opportunities that await them right in their own back yard.
Mike also has many guest speakers come in to present to his classes. He has found that the students respond well to hearing about 3 things from his speakers:
- What's your story (how did you get where you are today including all the setbacks and how you overcame them)?
- What do you do and how do you do it?
- What is your definition of success?
Sometimes Mike feels that he is learning more than the kids and he is very fortunate to be in this role.
Career Awareness in Collaboration with Career Assessment at Penta
Penta's Career Assessment (CA) department is taking 9th grade student's YouScience results and comparing them with the data they collect when a student comes to Penta for a CA. Using this information from all the activities they complete is helpful to educate students on their interests, skills and work preferences so they choose the right career tech program and career path. The more career education a student is exposed to prepares them for career success.
Using YouScience Results to Drive Career Exploration
Penta's Admission's team is now using YouScience data to assist with picking out programs to visit for the Explore Penta Day sophomore visit. Jason Dunston used his genius technical skills to come up with a digital form that shows students their individual top three overall aptitude/interest matches at the top of the form. From there students can use those results to help inform their decisions for the choices they pick. They do not have to use their results, however they are displayed for their reference. The form is great because it works with or without YouScience results.