(Milford)– A new program is being added this coming school year for students at the Okoboji Middle School. Principal Ryan Cunningham says the Pathfinder Academy is a work-based learning program designed specifically for 7th and 8th grade students…
“Every student, first two periods of the day, will have a choice of up to, I think, 27 different classes that we’re offering to start the day, and each one of them is connected to one or more career clusters. There’s so many options for what kids are going to want to be able to do when they leave our school district and we really want to expose them to things that are going to help them understand who they are, what their passions are, what their strengths are, and again, this is a really great way to do it.”
Cunningham says one of the primary goals of the program is to give students insights into potential career paths while providing some hands-on experiences…
“There will be classroom time as they learn about some of the competencies and skills that it takes to thrive in these different areas. They’re going to learn about how to work with adults. That’s a real important thing. Our No Boundaries program has done a great job with that. We’re going to model what they’ve done as far as how you work with adults, how you communicate well. Our hope is that as they go through these classes they are not necessarily deciding here’s what I want to be some day. Some will. But more so, that they’re deciding, you know, this is what I’m really good at, what I want to learn more about. Our whole focus as well is now to help them develop the skills, but really it’s when they leave our district. It’s the idea of that they’re investing their time and the money and energy when they leave our district in the best way they can. If we can help them with that we’ve done our job.”
Cunningham encourages anyone wanting more information about the Pathfinder Academy to contact him.
