Revere High School (RHS) holds a career based intervention program called the Minuteman Career Academy (MCA) that allows students to leave school earlier in the day if they have a job.
Four years ago, guidance counselor Emily Rion came up with the idea to create a MCA to help students better balance their daily activities. She then recruited RHS teacher Jeff Dallas to teach the course, as he already was licensed in the subject.
Rion explained what MCA essentially is and why it benefits students.
“The basis for a career based intervention program is to help a lot of students who are working outside of school leave a little bit early if they have to so that they can continue to work. But then also it does a ton of career exploration like activities, programming, curriculum,” Rion said
Rion talked about the requirements of students who wish to partake in the program.
“It’s open to 11th and 12th grade students. They typically have to be in pretty decent standing for graduation, there can’t be concerns about credits and things like that,” Rion said.
A student’s high school experiences can entail a great deal of stress over the future. Rion explained the types of questions that MCA may help answer for these students.
“What do I want to do for the rest of my life? Where do I see my goals going? Is that college? If it’s college, what am I going to study? Is it going right into the workforce? What does that look like? Or even if I’m planning on going into the military, what does that look like?” Rion said.
Rion explained the benefits that students may reap after partaking in MCA.
“Students who are part of this program probably have a bit more of an advantage in regard to really understanding, like different careers that are out there, because that’s one of the biggest focuses,” Rion said.
Change can be challenging for a small community to process, even when it is beneficial. Rion explained her challenges with starting up the class and how it would sit with students as well as the faculty at Revere.
“Whenever you’re starting something new . . . change makes people feel uncomfortable sometimes. With that being said, especially in a place like Revere where there’s not always a ton of changes it kind of could scare people a little bit,” Rion said.
Despite these initial challenges, Rion continued to develop MCA due to her belief in the ease it would bring to certain students. Rion explained how MCA tailors to students with different goals, and how important it is to have options for your future.
“Traditional education looks very different for everybody, and so I think that that’s a really important factor… that when you get up to the high school level, you have so many different opportunities that you can take advantage of,” Rion said.
Dallas explained the kinds of students who enroll in MCA and how it served as another opportunity to succeed.
“We know that a majority of our kids are going to four year colleges, but there was a patch of kids where nothing at CVCC appealed to them, and they didn’t want to be pigeonholed,” Dallas said.
Rion explained some of the accomplishments that MCA students have achieved through the program.
“I also know that for the first few years, the MCA students were part of the Future Business Leaders of America, which is a national organization, and it focuses on group projects and then you have to present in their scholarship money. We had a few kids that were winners and actually won the scholarships,” Rion said.
Rion explained some of the challenges that students face when they go off into the real world, and how MCA can try to prevent these.
“Some folks go right to college and then their very first job is whatever they majored in. And that can be hard because they’ve never held a job and learned how to work balance,” Rion said.
Dallas explained how it is crucial for students to learn from their mistakes, but students should also avoid as many as they can.
“They’re going to make mistakes. That’s the greatest teacher. But I tell them we can try to eliminate some of the mistakes that are preventable,” Dallas said.
MCA often has speakers come in to share their stories of different careers. Dallas explained why it is so important for professional speakers in the field so students can hear a different perspective.
“When it’s someone who’s actually in the field, it means a lot more. But thankfully they back up what I’m teaching,” Dallas said
Dallas explained how he approaches the curriculum for the course and how he changes it yearly to keep up with the fast pace of the world.
“The stuff I teach is really going on in the real world, and that way it’s also never the same year after year because everything changes. So pretty soon here we’ll do a unit on doing their taxes, because most of them work, and last year’s taxes are different because all the laws change,” Dallas said.
Ellie Meech, a senior and member of MCA, spoke about some of the projects they have done in class.
“Throughout the semester last year we started a slideshow called Career Pathways, and it pretty much is just a slide going over what you wanted to do,” Meech said.
Meech explained how the curriculum of MCA is helping her as she takes her next step towards adulthood.
“It’s really preparing me a lot for college next year and figuring out financial aid forms and student loans and grants and everything that you can use to save money for college too, which is super nice,” Meech said.
Meech explained a typical day for her with her flexible schedule due to MCA, making her available to work without feeling overwhelmed.
“Typically I’ll go to Richfield Elementary and I’ll work with first and second grade students. It’s so fun. It’s almost like an internship. It’s for the class, so that’s like my job credit. But I also am a hostess and server assistant at Lanning’s and I work there three times a week and I also babysit four times a week,” Meech said.
MCA has only grown since its beginning, as they now have over fifty students enrolled in the program.
