Española Valley High School students won’t have to go far to track down information that could make the transition from full-time student to working adult much easier.
Personnel from the Rio Arriba Community and Empowerment Program partnered with High School Librarian Dwight McArthur, better known as Mr. Mac, to establish a career resource center.
The idea behind the initiative is to have a space where students can obtain information regarding various employment and scholarship opportunities, according to the Program’s Student Outreach and Career Services Coordinator, Demeatrio Wade.
Wade said students will be able to drop by the Center located in the library’s northeast corner and access a bevy of services that includes resume writing, scholarship finding, American College Testing (ACT) and SAT Scholastic Assessment Testing (SAT) tutoring.
Wade said, in addition to working with the students to pinpoint career and educational goals, he will spend a great deal of time emphasizing the need for community involvement.
“Start volunteering and going to the nursing homes and doing something to help the elderly,” he said.
He encourages students to volunteer because not only does it teach them the importance of serving others, it looks good on college applications.
“It would help on a resume because it shows leadership,” Wade said. “Colleges are looking for the social impact the students have in their communities.”
Wade said he is working on enlisting the help of average citizens and civic leaders, alike, to serve as Program mentors.
“They are supporting the community 100-percent to help the youth become adults,” Wade said. “It has a lot of potential for growth. I am going to be calling on people to truly serve.”
McArthur said when Program officials first approached him about establishing the Center, he thought it was an excellent opportunity.
His immediate plans for the Center are to order books such as the “For Dummies” series that students can check out to pursue interests outside of the school setting.
The books could attract the attention of students who aren’t interested in attending college, McArthur said.
The goal is to get the students to explore their interests.
Program Director Ashley Montoya said she believes the Center will put the school on the same stable footing that many other regional high schools have, since establishing such programs.
“We went to talk to the librarian, Mr. Mac, and he wanted to know if we would be willing to run a professional development center and we said, ‘Yeah,’” Montoya said recalling the Program’s origin. “We can run a career center. Most high schools have them, but Española doesn’t, but we will fix that.”
The program is set to be fully operational, will be open when students return from spring break. So far, Wade will be the Center’s only employee.
His salary, as well as the Center’s day-to-day operating expenses, will come out of the Program’s budget.
The District doesn’t have a financial role other than housing the Center in the Española Valley High School library.