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Schools

Planning for the Future Begins Today

GGUSD parents learn from a panel of experts how to help their child develop career interests.

It may still be a while before the today’s youth begin their careers, but Garden Grove Unified School District parents learned that preparation for their children’s success begins today.

“We know if we plant that seed early, it’s not a matter if they are going to college, but where,” said event chair Teri Rocco.

On Thursday, parents attended the career selection and planning workshop, hosted by the district’s Parent and Community Outreach, to understand how to effectively guide their children to the right career when the time comes.

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Career preparation can begin as early as preschool years, said Coastline Community College Education Program Coordinator Rosanne Freilich. If parents paid attention to their child’s talent early on, the types of toys and activities can signify what they choose as careers later in life.

If the child enjoys drawing or likes to build with Play-Doh, parents help introduce careers, such as interior design, landscape design or architecture. If the child is musically inclined, he or she may one day be interested in becoming a music teacher or a composer. And if writing is a child’s prime interest, career fields who needs strong written communication skills include advertisement, journalism, legal and much more.

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“Don’t be surprise on what your children picks up on,” Freilich said. "Career choices are unlimited and parents need to enrich their children with as many resources as possible."

GGUSD offers Regional Occupational Programs in various high schools in the district to help students enter the work force with more than just an entry level position in fields including engineering, video game programming, automotive technology, fashion and retail merchandising, criminal justice and culinary arts.

To provide a real-world and hands-on experience, ROP has recently made major changes to stay current with technological advances by transforming old wood shop studios into product design centers and purchasing multiple 3-D printers for students to physically showcase the product they have designed on computers.

ROP courses are currently only available for high school students, the program is expecting to expand its courses into intermediate school levels in the future, said ROP Director Terry Haxton.

He said that it is never too early to prepare students for their future by sharing upcoming projects. “We want to get programs in the intermediate schools that lead to the high school level courses, which will then point to college,” he said.

Other guest speakers included Orange County Asian Pacific Island Community Alliance Youth Specialist Uyen Nguyen and Coastline Community College Career Advisor Carolyn Clausen who each shared academic and career support services for parents and students.

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