When designing their schedules, students at Malden High School are offered the opportunity to work with a staff or teacher in a School-to-Career program. Malden High is known for its diversity of teachers and students. This diversity is home to approximately 1,800 thriving students, with that number rising to nearly 2,000 when staff members are included.
With School-to-Career, students are not given a teacher to work with automatically: students have the liberty of choosing which staff member they want to work with. “We do hear from teachers who would be interested in having a student in their school-to-career. If a student does not know what to pick we can usually make recommendations of teachers who are looking for assistance,” stated Jenkins House Guidance Counselor Ann O’Connor.
The choice of School-to-Career may be a new idea to freshmen and sophomores but they will not be able to participate until their junior or senior year.
For over 20 years, Malden High School has offered School-to-Career as an option to replace direct studies and switch out from classes. With students having multiple direct studies in their schedule, School-to-Career may be a useful program to make a student’s transcript look better. “At this point, it may be too late to add a class to your schedule since we are a month into school, but take advantage of the direct study to get your school work done,” stated O’Connor. “Make direct studies your own personal choice, not a decision by staff or counselors.”
The process of signing up for School-to-Career is simple: students will either go to the main office or their guidance counselor and pick up and fill out the single-page form. The staff that they wish to work with must also complete the form filling out their responsibilities and roles. After the form is finished, it goes back to the guidance counselor to be added to the student’s schedule. Only then can the student start working with the staff member during the period.
Out of all the juniors and seniors at Malden High School, there is a calculated total of 130 students currently enrolled in School-to-Career. “Though it may not seem like much, each of those students is giving back and helping faculty which is always appreciated,” concluded O’Connor.
