Stephen Rosser typically teaches history and government at West High School, but this year he’s one of five teachers offering the new Freshmen Academy Career Exploration class. The class is the kickoff to the district’s “Academies of Anchorage” program which aims to boost graduation rates by offering more career-focused education.
One of the first assignments Rosser gave his students was to make a game board using colored construction paper and markers for their own Game of Life. Students wrote their long-term life goal at the end of the game and identified obstacles they might face along the way.
In the back corner, a group of girls worked on game boards that included spaces for medical school. Clara Morse filled in boxes with hardships she might encounter while she works toward a career.
“When I was a kid, one of my best friends had cancer,” Morse said. “I saw her go through everything, and it made me really interested in it, and want to help kids like her.”
So Morse has her sights set on a career in oncology, or maybe engineering. The freshman academy class is designed to help her figure that out. Morse and her classmates are among the first students in the district to take the class that’s now required for every 9th grader.
The Anchorage School Board voted in June to launch freshmen academies this year. The course is meant to be a precursor to three more years of career-focused classes in the student’s chosen career path.
Rosser said that he hasn’t heard any pushback about the class from students. But some parents expressed concern before the school board voted to approve the Career Academies Master Plan this summer. A small group of parents and one student said a proposed change from six to eight class periods when the academies fully launch next fall would hurt students by decreasing core class time. Several business organization leaders testified in favor of the academies at that meeting. The Anchorage School Board plans to finalize the schedule for the full Academies of Anchorage program later this year.
Rosser said the class will help achieve the district’s goal of preparing students for college, their career, or life in general. He said that the school is planning field trips to show students what jobs in Anchorage can look like.
“We are definitely hoping that the students get exposed to a wide variety of careers, so that next year, when they’re choosing their pathway, they’ve got a lot of background, and they can make an informed choice,” Rosser said.
Before the students dive into any particular career path — which they’ll be required to research and present for their final — educators are teaching them the skills needed to be employable in any field. Rosser said that showing up on time, working as a team and communicating clearly are part of what he calls “soft skills.”
“All teachers, we all want to teach our kids soft skills as we go,” Rosser said. “We get so busy teaching the curriculum that it’s hard to slip in the soft skills, and this whole class is basically soft skills. So that’s really exciting.”
Next year, students who continue to take career-focused classes at West will choose from one of nine different pathways in three academies: Business and leadership, science and health, and construction and innovation. But when the school board approved the plan in June, they allowed students to opt out of the program after the freshman academy.
Micah Lieb is a student in Rosser’s class. He’s glad to have the opt-out option, and isn’t interested in three more years of career-focused courses.
“I don’t really know what I want to do with my life yet, so I think I want to get, like, a more general education that could help me in whatever I decide to do,” Lieb said.
The class is part of several changes in the district this year including new start times and moving all sixth graders into middle schools. Assistant Principal Nicole Smith said the career academy teachers started their school year before the rest of the West staff to get a head start on the class.
“It’s a big lift,” Smith said. “I mean, I’m not going to sugarcoat this by any stretch of the imagination, this is a big lift.”
But Smith is excited about the class. She said it’ll give students a better connection to why they’re in high school in the first place, and why graduating is so important.
“The most common question educators get is, ‘Why do I have to learn this?’” Smith said. “Well, this is hopefully going to start answering that question of, ‘Here’s why you have to learn it,’ and then ‘Here’s how you’re going to apply it.’”
Smith points to an October job fair at the Dena’ina Center as an opportunity for students to find careers they’re interested in that they don’t know about yet.
Near the end of Rosser’s third period class, Makenzie Patzke spun a numbered beach ball to find out what obstacles she might face in her game of life. Like Morse, she’s hoping to become an oncologist. And she said even if this class doesn’t teach her about oncology specifically, it’ll help her in whatever career she does choose to pursue after high school.
“I don’t know if in this class it’s going to be mostly soft skills or learning about different fields of careers,” Patzke said,” but I really hope that we do learn about different fields, just because that would help us, like, figure out what we’re going to do after high school.”
Tim Rockey is the producer of Alaska News Nightly and covers education for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at trockey@alaskapublic.org or 907-550-8487. Read more about Tim here.
