Pepperell students prep for real world
Freshmen and seniors participate in mock job interviews.
Freshmen and seniors sit for mock job interviews.
It’s never too early to get a jump start on preparing for a life in the everyday workforce — a lesson Pepperell High School students recently experienced firsthand.
Ninth-graders along with a few seniors at Pepperell High spent two days last week sitting for mock interviews with local business leaders, to help them prepare for that ever-important first real job interview.
Alana Ellenburg teaches High School 101, a class designed specifically to help teenagers get ready for a career and life beyond being a student.
The program is in its ninth year, and has been sustained through Ellenburg’s efforts and the assistance of Rome’s Kiwanis Club.
“We couldn’t do it without them,” she said.
A cross section of business and industry representatives gathered in the library at Pepperell High to guide the students through mock interviews.
The program this year featured a couple of twists from past projects. Students from David Mowery’s business class watched the interviews Thursday, paying particular attention to the interviewers’ questions. After the student interviews were over, business students spoke with the interviewers, asking why they chose specific questions.
U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. Rico Jones, of the 1160th Transportation unit in Rome, said the sessions not only helped students hone their interview skills, but also offered him a chance to sharpen up his skills as an interviewer.
Interviewers were asked to rate the students on their professional appearance, poise, maturity and attitude. They also evaluated students’ ability to understand and respond to questions and the effectiveness of their resume.
Senior Leah Anderson, who had not gone through the program as a freshman, said the class has already assisted her with learning how to build a resume.
“It’s taught me a lot about how to act when you first sit down for the interview, how to have a good handshake, things like that,” she said.
The interviewer asked Anderson, who hopes to be a math teacher one day, to talk a little bit about herself right at the outset, catching her by surprise.
“I didn’t know what to say, how in depth I was supposed to go,” she said.
Will Bagwell, another senior who didn’t take the class as a freshman, said he had never been in a job interview situation before.
“It just gave me a pretty good idea of what I should expect someday,” he said.
Bag well wants to practice as a physical therapist, either as an outpatient therapist or something specifically sports-related.
John Pillsbury, a retired Georgia Power executive, coordinates the freshman interview program for the Kiwanis Club.
“We’ve had several people participate in the past who identified prospective hires once the students got old enough to work,” he said.
Pillsbury specifically named The Partridge, Outback Steakhouse, Panera Bread, Steak ’n Shake and Pick O’ Deli Cafeteria as restaurants that hired students after their personnel interviewed them.
Ellenburg said it is never too early for students to start networking, making contacts and getting a better handle on exactly what the jobs of the future will require of them. She said students might not necessarily know what they plan to do for the rest of their lives, but there is no time like the present for getting ready.
It was a little hard, Ellenburg said, to quantify the success of the program over the years.
“What I can tell you is the amount of students that come back to me afterward, whether they’re adults or older teens — some juniors and seniors here at the high school who still talk about this class and how they are still using the skills that they learned in High School 101,” Ellenburg said. “I had a parent tell me they couldn’t believe their son came home and knew how to tie a tie.”
She posted on Facebook last week about setting up the library for the interviews and got a huge response from friends saying it was the one thing they remembered about being in high school.
“It’s the best thing they ever did in high school that benefited them the most, because it’s real world,” Ellenburg said.
Dale Willerson, assistant principal at Pepperell, said the program gives students life skills.
“We are giving them the opportunity to get their faces out there in front of employers that can help them hone their employability skills and maybe actually give them a job somewhere some day,” she said. “I think it’s one of the best classes we offer.”
Lisa Nelson with Tailor Made Tutors was an interviewer and said she has a son who will be a freshman at Pepperell next year.
“I’ve enjoyed getting to interview some of the students. It’s been a great learning experience for me as a parent,” she said.
Before becoming an educator, Ellenburg was in business for half a dozen years. She said her past triggered a desire to give students a special understanding of what the world will be like after school.
Experience is crucial, Ellenburg explained, and the mock interviews are an opportunity for students to get a feel for what an actual interview might be like.
In addition to mock interviews, she said, students are sent out to interview someone who has an unusual job.
“They’re actually put into the position of being the interviewer and that’s their first dealing with an actual interview,” Ellenburg said.
The students also are instructed in a variety of job skills, including time management, tolerance diversity and people skills.
Pillsbury said a big part of the program involves financial skills.
“They learn how to handle a checkbook, mortgages and insurance,” he said. “We’ve actually brought in bankers and people from different financial groups to talk to the students, and that’s been a plus.”
‘We’ve had several people participate in the past who identified prospective hires once the students got old enough to work.’ John Pillsbury