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From workplaces to workshops, TFIM’s annual Student Leadership Conference brings information, insights, and new experiences to hundreds of students |
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TFIM students visiting Dollar Bank tried their hands at writing checks
For many kids, it’s surprising to find out that banks keep minimal amounts of cash on hand. They’re also taken aback to learn that “bankers’ hours,” at least for some bank employees, may mean working more-or-less the schedules they choose. Perhaps most interesting, though, from a high school student’s perspective, is that banks offer employment opportunities ranging from traditional jobs, like processing checks, to newer age work, like “creating aps” for Apple i-phones.
Those are just a few of the things that students attending the 10th annual Student Leadership Conference hosted by The Consortium for Public Education’s career exploration program, The Future Is Mine (TFIM) learned as they visited Dollar Bank’s operations center.
Dollar Bank was one of 14 regional employers offering site visits during the two-day TFIM Conference. Others included Allegheny County; Apangea Learning; BNY Mellon; Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab; Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center; DeepLocal; Google; Heinz History Center; the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection; Specter Studios; UPMC Health System’s Peter M. Winter Institute for Simulation, Education & Research (WISER); VLN Partners; and Wholey’s Fish Market.
After a lesson in writing checks, seeing where the checks go during a tour of Dollar’s operations center, and trying their hands with i-Pads that the bank’s technology is programming to facilitate paperless transactions, many students who had never been beyond a teller’s window, marveled at the complexity. “I learned a lot,” said Donte, a senior at Pittsburgh Carrick High School. “There’s a lot more to do here than I thought.”
The TFIM Student Leadership Conference, held April 22 and 23 this year, capped a year of career exploration for him and other students. As participants in TFIM, students perform individual and team projects to learn about the world of work and share their knowledge with peers and younger students. Along the way, their projects help them build job-related skills in planning, organization and communications.
Following their site visits, the TFIM members, who came together for the Conference from 25 Southwestern Pennsylvania school districts, moved to the Senator John Heinz Regional History Center to explore the collections and hear some advice and encouragement from Pennsylvania’s First Lady.
The Hon. Marjorie O. Rendell, U.S. Third Circuit Court Judge praised the teams for projects through which they had reached out to perform community services as part of their learning. An advocate for increased emphasis on civics education, she also encouraged students to participate in the democratic process, both by exercising their voting rights and by engaging in “civic action.”
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“The future is yours and part of the future is being an active, engaged citizen,” Judge Rendell said. “Seize the opportunity.”
The First Lady took a moment to recognize TFIM’s 10th anniversary and The Consortium’s upcoming 25th anniversary. She thanked Executive Director Linda Croushore and Associate Executive Director, Steve Seliy, who oversees TFIM, “for all that you have done for the youth of Western Pennsylvania.”
Following the First Lady’s remarks, students went to the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center for dinner, a dance and some entertainment provided by artists from Douglas Education Center’s film, special effects and cosmetology programs. The Douglas students brought their cameras, a video screen and make-up to demonstrate their crafts and transform TFIM volunteers into “stars.”
Students work on teambuilding at Conference workshop.
The following morning, TFIM members attended workshops, a number of which engaged them in hands-on activities to build skills or to prepare them for life after high school. In one, for example, girls learned negotiating skills. In another, students did exercises aimed at teambuilding, like figuring out how to turnover a makeshift life raft, with six or more of them aboard, while making sure no one fell off in the process. Still other workshops helped students develop resumes, prepare for job interviews, learn the perils of “digital footprints” on Facebook or other web vehicles that employers might view, and plan budgets for living on their own in cities of their choosing with hypothetical first jobs and paychecks.
A luncheon and guest speaker Greg Joseph, bass player and songwriter for The Clarks, rounded out the final day of the Conference. Joseph told students that a small reversal of fortune, being fired from his day job as an advertising salesman, helped send him headlong into his real passion, the musical gigs he had been doing by night.
“At first, I was really upset,” Joseph said. “Then, all of a sudden, I started laughing. I realized that I was so happy someone had made a decision for me that I hadn’t been able to make and that I was going to be doing what I really loved.”
Joseph, who studied graphics and practiced music with no formal instruction, has since had a musical career for more than 20 years that has taken him around the world and resulted in 11 recordings that have sold more than a quarter of a million copies.
He reminded students, that as they pursue their educations, explore careers and find their ways in the world, they should remain flexible and open to things they may discover about themselves during the journey. “Where you start out and where you end up may be two totally different things.”
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