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U-46, Alignment Collaborative for Education to Host 5th Annual Curriculum and Career Expo

Explore 2019 gives 8th graders up-close view of career options.

More than 3,000 U-46 8th graders will get the opportunity next month to talk with local professionals who will share their journey from post-secondary education to the workforce. The District’s annual curriculum and career expo aims to show students the connection between academics and future careers at a time when they are beginning to recognize their interests and, together with their parents, teachers, and guidance counselors, plan for high school and beyond.

As in recent years, the Alignment Collaborative for Education is partnering with U-46 to organize the event, and for the second year, it will be held at the Sears Centre, 5333 Prairie Stone Parkway, Hoffman Estates. Eighth grade students will attend during the school day on Sept. 11 with their teachers. More than 90 local companies and organizations will showcase their careers at the event which will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

New this year, parents and guardians of U-46 8th grade students are invited to attend a special “preview” of Explore 2019 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at the Sears Centre.

“Explore offers students a unique opportunity to learn first hand about various professions and to think about what college or career path they might want to follow,” said U-46 CEO Tony Sanders. “I’m excited that this year we can offer parents a chance to experience our expo as well and to meet some of the inspiring professionals who are volunteering to talk with students and explain how their education and career path led them to their current roles.”

The Citizens’ Advisory Council helped the District launch the first expo. The Alignment Collaborative for Education, a non-profit local organization that brings together community resources and initiatives to support District priorities, has since helped expand the expo in the past four years, first as a weekend event at Elgin Community College and starting in 2018, as a weekday event at the Sears Centre. The new location was necessary to accommodate both the growing exhibitor demonstrations and equipment and 8th grade students from all eight U-46 middle schools. U-46 buses will be used to transport the students to the event.

“We are thrilled to see so many local businesses invest in our future workforce,” said Nancy Coleman, executive director of Alignment. “We look forward to hosting parents on the 10th and giving them the opportunity to experience the expo and become better equipped to discuss the event as well as future college and career options with their children.”

Explore 2019 supports the District’s ongoing efforts to improve college and career readiness. The first aspiration outlined in the District’s Strategic Plan focuses on student achievement and educating the whole student by providing an enriched, high-quality experience that empowers graduates to be competitive members of the global society.

Another part of that effort is Naviance, a web-based college and career readiness platform that helps middle and high school students explore their strengths and interests. Before Explore 2019, school counselors will visit 8th grade classrooms, helping students use the Naviance tool to determine the career cluster they want to focus on at the event. Also before the event, students and parents will be provided with tips about how they can discuss the student’s career interests at home, as well as an expo map so that students can plan their route.

At both the school-day Explore 2019 and the parent preview the night before, U-46 faculty and staff will be present to explain core classes, electives, and popular course sequences that are based on students’ career interests, such as courses in automotive, welding, healthcare science, and manufacturing, as well as additional college and career preparatory curriculum. Representatives from the District’s five magnet academies, which require an application process, will be present at both events as well. Children can attend the preview night with their parents.

Exhibitors, which include businesses, hospitals, local governmental organizations, industry partners, universities, and non-profits, in total representing about a dozen career clusters, will be provided with suggestions for how to best interact with students.

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School District U-46 serves families in 11 communities: Bartlett, Elgin, Hanover Park, South Elgin, Streamwood and Wayne, as well as portions of Carol Stream, Hoffman Estates, St. Charles, Schaumburg, and West Chicago. In total, the District encompasses 90 square miles within the Fox River Valley, approximately 45 minutes west of downtown Chicago, and includes communities within Cook, DuPage and Kane counties. More than 38,000 pre-K through twelfth graders attend the 57 District schools and programs. To learn more, Visit the U-46 website,or like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

 

U-46 to Recognize May 15 as Trauma-Informed Awareness Day

Trauma Informed Care Day - May 15, 2019
26 Schools Plan to Raise Awareness of Trauma-Informed Care.

School District U-46 is inviting local organizations to join the District in recognizing Wednesday, May 15 as Trauma-Informed Awareness Day. The approach supports an informed response to students experiencing adverse situations, both past and present, and it is gaining momentum in the state’s second-largest district and across the nation.

“Trauma-informed care is a vital component of U-46’s multi-tiered system of support,” said U-46 Director of School Safety and Culture John Heiderscheidt. “It provides social-emotional supports to students who need it the most, and helps them reach academic success as they overcome adverse experiences.”

The Illinois State Senate passed a resolution in March 2019 declaring May 15 as Trauma-Informed Awareness Day, and U-46 schools will be recognizing the day by raising awareness about the importance of trauma-informed care and how it provides social and emotional support for students who have experienced any adverse childhood experiences.

Trauma-informed care prepares educators and others to better respond to students with adverse childhood experiences. It is an approach that recognizes how these experiences may affect a child in the classroom, and it gives educators tools they can implement to support students who have experienced trauma. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study performed by the Center for Disease Control found that traumatic experiences during childhood have a tremendous impact on future social and health problems.

To support U-46 schools in providing trauma-informed care, the Alignment Collaborative for Education created a team focused on providing training to teams within U-46 schools, called resiliency teams. Since 2017, 26 schools in U-46 have formed resiliency teams.

On May 15, school resiliency team staff will tie a purple ribbon around the flagpole at their school and wear Trauma-Informed Care Awareness Day stickers in an effort to raise awareness and start conversations about trauma-informed care.

Local organizations are invited to join U-46 in recognizing May 15 as Trauma-Informed Awareness Day. Packets containing stickers and a purple ribbon will be available for pickup at the District’s Educational Service Center, 355 E. Chicago Street. More information about trauma-informed care can be found on the U-46 website.

 

Bartlett High School STEM Academy Visits Harting North America

Freshmen students from Bartlet's STEM Academy visit Harting North America in Elgin, ILBig thanks to HARTING-North America in Elgin for sharing your day with more than 90 freshmen from the Bartlett High School STEM Academy. Students worked in teams on production questions and building a connector kit, listened to engineers talk about their work and took a tour of the facility where the company manufactures products for the connector industry. These connectors are used in mechanical and plant engineering, broadcast and entertainment, factory automation, power generation and distribution.

Student Ronit Nagarapu said he learned a lot about the different types of engineering jobs and the visit “solidified my decision to become an engineer.” Freshman Jessica Pearce said she’s not yet sure about her career path but valued the visit saying “I do think experiences like this will help me make up my mind.”

Kudos to the team at HARTING for helping arrange the visit.

Freshmen students from Bartlet's STEM Academy visit Harting North America in Elgin, IL

Larkin High School Career Panel

The Larkin High School Career PanelThe Larkin High School Career Panel was held as an all day event on March 7, 2019.  In partnership with Junior Achievement (JA), Alignment recruited an industry panel composed of banking and finance, education, healthcare and public safety.  Thank you to Berto Valdez from PNC Bank, Rose Diaz and Fatima Reyes from the AVID CNA program, Kathy Potts and Matt Jacobucci from the Elgin Police Department, and Ronald Raglin from School District U-46 for serving as our career panelists and to Edgar Montes from Junior Achievement.  The event attracted over 400 students, including freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Waste Management Donation

Waste Management donates $5,000 to support Alignment's work.Vaughn Küerschner, Public Sector Representative of Waste Management, met with Alignment’s Executive Committees on February 26, 2019, to award a check of $5,000 to support Alignment’s work to improve early education offerings, build schools with trauma informed care cultures, and offer all students the opportunity to benefit from educational pathways graduating academic and career ready.  Alignment greatly appreciates this donation and Waste Management’s continued support of its work for the last three years.