Summer Career Academies offers middle schoolers more options
Workforce Services at Piedmont Virginia Community College is partnering with local businesses and area professionals to provide its fourth annual Summer Career Academies (SCA) program this summer. SCA, open to rising 7th, 8th and 9th graders, will run from June 18 to Aug. 10 and will offer nearly 30 one-week academies led by PVCC faculty and local professionals.
Founded in 2009, SCA operates as part of PVCC’s Piedmont Futures program, aiming to involve local businesses and organizations in the career development of K-12 students from Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene and Nelson counties. “Summer Career Academies is based on a program that Central Virginia Community College runs, and we applied for a grant for a similar program,” said Erin Hughey-Commers, program coordinator of Piedmont Futures. “They were our initial inspiration.”
The 2012 SCA catalogue covers programs of study from robotics to forensics to theater and dance, among other disciplines. “We find that middle school students have a lot of enthusiasm and curiosity, and are interested in exploring lots of things. It’s an age where it makes a lot of sense to expose them to resources and a broader scope of study,” said Hughey-Commers.
Each academy incorporates two field trips as well as guest speakers into its curriculum, aspiring to give students a tangible connection between study and the workforce. Katherine Pajewski, a 9th grader at Albemarle High School, has participated in SCA for the past two summers and has attended academies for engineering, health sciences and astronomy. “It was cool because we actually got to go see the careers in action,” said Pajewski. “For engineering we saw what was actually required to build a building. In the health academy we went to the hospital at UVa and got to tour a lab that was researching different bacteria. We also got to see two different ambulances.”
Katherine’s sister, Hannah Pajewski, is in 7th grade at Sutherland Middle School and participated in both the Engineering Academy and the Health Technologies Academy in 2011. “We were certified for CPR and the AED,” she said.
“We didn’t expect that,” said Michelle Sandow, Katherine and Hannah Pajewski’s mother. “The training certificate from Red Cross was just an additional bonus.”
“SCA gives students a framework to see how what they’re learning fits into the working world,” said Hughey-Commers. “We want them to ask, ‘What’s the practical application? How does this apply?’ Sometimes I think students don’t make that connection with what they’re studying in school, so we want to make sure they take that understanding back to their classrooms in the fall.”
SCA has served as a springboard for some students to explore additional career exploration programs in the area. “The engineering program two years ago inspired my brother and me to apply to MESA,” said Katherine Pajewski. The Math, Engineering and Science Academy (MESA) is a four-year program at Albemarle High School which prepares students for collegiate study to become engineers, researchers, inventors and entrepreneurs.
“We like the idea of career exploration before I get to the point of having a junior in high school who doesn’t know what he wants his major to be,” said Sandow. “The kids are pushed further and further out before they start asking those questions. I think the only things the middle schools are doing are giving the students surveys and taking them to a career fair. This is definitely more hands on, and it may benefit students more than the current electives in the schools.”
In addition to facilitating career exploration, SCA aspires to familiarize middle school students with what it means to be a college student. “At the end of the academy, students get a card with a student ID number because they’ve enrolled in a non-credit class,” said Hughey-Commers. “When they come back to PVCC or go to any other community college in Virginia, they’re already entered in our system. They’ve had a concrete experience here at the college, and they’re a college student.”
This summer new academies will investigate careers in neuroscience, architecture, chemistry and photography, among other areas of interest. Mark Fitzgerald, Associate Professor of Electronics at PVCC, teaches an academy in which students build a computer from parts. Bruce Glasgow, an English faculty member who has published his own board game, teaches the Board Game Academy, in which students create their own games and present them to parents. Most programs take place on campus grounds, with the exception of the TV Production Academy, which teaches students to direct, produce and act in their own shows at the Charlottesville Community Access TV station.
Engaging students with the PVCC community also means integrating current PVCC students into the SCA experience. “We hire staff that help the students in the learning process,” said Hughey-Commers. “They chaperone field trips and lead activities throughout the day, and some of those are PVCC students. We like the idea of role modeling and letting the students talk to PVCC students about what it’s like to be at PVCC. We want the Piedmont experience to be accessible, interesting and fun.”
To register or to access a complete listing of 2012 Summer Career Academies, visit pvcc.edu/academies or call Workforce Services at 434-961-5354. Workforce Services awards needs-based scholarships on a rolling basis.
