‘WOW’ing students with career opportunities
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- Published on Thursday, March 17, 2016
Submitted photos. (From left) Derek Thiessen receiving Career Trekker of the Year award from Lasha Stordeur, Career Trek Program Director. Wade Wabash receiving award from Katie Gross, Director of Recruitment and Retention at BU.
By Kira Paterson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
On Saturday, March 12, 180 students, aged 10 and 11, from all over the Westman area were recognized for their participation in and completion of the Career Trek Wonder of Work (WOW) program. Thirty-four students from Rolling River, two from Pine Creek and 20 from Beautiful Plains school divisions took part in the program.
A convocation ceremony was held at the Westman Centennial Auditorium in Brandon for all the students who completed this year’s 12 week program.
The western Manitoba WOW program has been around for seven years. It was created to give kids as many career-sampling opportunities as possible to give them a better idea of what path they want to take in the future. Westman participants go to Brandon every Saturday from November to March to visit Brandon University and Assiniboine Community College. There are over 40 different career choices offered at the schools that students can explore. The participants get a little bit of instruction beforehand and the rest of their time is spent with hands on experience with the job they are considering.
At the convocation ceremony, participants are recognized as program graduates and Career Trek awards are given out. Lasha Stordeur, director of programming for Career Trek, said that there was a really good turnout for the ceremony this year. “The one thing that strikes me every year at the grad is the amount of community support and involvement,” she noted. She explained that there are always community members who support the kids and address the grads with words of encouragement and the community is a part of the celebration. She said that is one thing that has always stood out for her in the Westman area in particular.
Program sparks new interests
Wade Wabash, who is in Grade 6 at Tanner’s Crossing Elementary in Minnedosa, won the Love of Learning award. He said that he was “pretty surprised and shocked” when he found out that he had won the award. Stordeur said that this award is given to a participant who is “hungry for information” and takes every opportunity to learn and try new things. She said the winner of this award is someone who is willing to immerse themselves in new activities that they wouldn’t normally try and gives their all in everything they do.
Wade’s mother, Raven Wabash, said that she signed him up for the program for the experience, to meet new friends and so that he knows that there are a lot of opportunities out there. She said Wade likes to meet new people and loves to keep busy, so this was a good program for him. This experience helped Wade decide that he wants to further his education at ACC and wants to be a part of the WOW program in the future, noted Raven.
“It was fun,” Wade said about WOW, adding that every kid that has the opportunity should go. He said that he wants to get involved in the program when he’s older because he “wants to help kids make new friends”. He said his two favourite parts of the program were the civil technician and archaeologist careers. Raven noted that there are a lot of things he’s interested in now, from cooking to computer designing. He had told her that he wants to work with Career Trek when he gets older to help encourage the next generation.
Rewarding positive attitude and leadership
Derek Thiessen, a Grade 6 student who goes to school at Austin Elementary, won the Career Trekker of the Year award. Stordeur said that there are three winners of this award across the province every year. The participants who win this award are those who have a positive attitude and enthusiasm, display leadership qualities and show initiative in helping out their peers and instructors whenever needed. “I was pretty happy,” Thiessen said, when asked how he felt about winning the award. “I don’t really know how else to explain it.”
Donna Thiessen, Derek’s mom, said “I think it [WOW program] was a great opportunity to learn about the different career options.” She noted that, coming from a rural area, kids don’t get a lot of exposure to all the careers that are out there. Derek added, “Being introduced to all the things that I could do was cool.” Donna said that he isn’t any closer to deciding what he wants to go into as a career. “I liked most of it, I can’t really think of anything I didn’t,” Derek said. He said that he would recommend this program to other kids who have the chance to participate. “It’s a really great program,” he stated.
In addition to WOW in the Westman region, Career Trek also has programs in Winnipeg, the Parkland region and Northern Manitoba. Career Trek is going into its 20th year of operation, providing kids with opportunities to discover different career options.
The organization partners with elementary, secondary and postsecondary schools to get not just the 10 and 11 year old participants involved, but also high school students who want to help out the instructors and work with the participants. The partner elementary schools nominate students at their school who they think would benefit most from the programs. Career Trek has over 30 program partners, 130 school partners and 10 First Nations community partners in the province. Almost 800 students get to experience these programs every year and since its inception, there have been almost 10,000 participants.
Career Trek’s mission is “To provide Manitobans with a wide range of experiences and information designed to develop the knowledge, skills, relationships, and values consistent with career and education success.”
