I Created My Own Career Pathway

The goal of career planning and counseling is to help students with disabilities gain employment by equipping them with the tools necessary to identify possible career paths, based on their interests and preferences. A glance at the national unemployment rate tells us that individuals with disabilities continue to struggle to find gainful employment. As of December 2013, the current unemployment rate in this country is at 6.3%. However, for individuals with disabilities, the unemployment rate is nearly twice as high (11.9%) (U.S. Department of Labor, 2013). Targeting employment for all individuals, including individuals with disabilities, is critical to the economic and social health of our country.  Families, transition service personnel, and career counselors can help make this goal a reality by encouraging students with disabilities to be actively engaged in their career planning.  

Depending on their career goals, students with disabilities, after leaving high school, may decide to enroll in a postsecondary education institution or to join the workforce.  After high school, students with disabilities are transitioning from a world of entitlement to services to eligibility for services.  If students need accommodations and services in the postsecondary environment, they must be eligible to receive them. Students will have to disclose their disabilities with documentation and state what accommodations they need to be successful in their postsecondary environments. Therefore, a student’s ability to advocate for themselves and their career goals is critical to their success.

Brittanie Pierce, a college student with a disability, from The George Washington University, shares how important it is for students with disabilities to be in charge of their career planning in college.

Transitioning into college can be a very difficult time in any person’s life, however, being a student with a disability requires more steps. Students have to work with the school’s disability support services and professors to keep a constant line of communication to ensure you, as the student, are advocating for your needs. Approaching professors can be difficult. Having a disability is a personal matter and being able to share that with another person can be hard, but allowing your professors a chance to help accommodate your needs is necessary to succeed. Moving into my senior year of college and utilizing my university’s disability support services has allowed me to succeed in college and in my career. I have been able to have three internships and three jobs while attending school.

Now as I look to applying to jobs, I am constantly in contact with the career center on my campus. My advisor guides me to what I need to do academically and professionally to make myself a more appealing candidate. By working with these different organizations and my professors, I have been able to push myself beyond the limitation of my disability. Students must take advantage of all the services a university offers and create an open line of communication to actively engage in their own life’s professional success.

Jessica Queener, doctoral candidate with a disability, from The George Washington University, shares her story and tips of how she prepared herself from transitioning from high school to college.

In the 6th grade, we had career day in school. Up until that point, I had not thought about what I wanted to do as an adult. Our school had a lawyer come speak to our group. She spoke about the law, her background, and what skills are needed to be successful in the legal profession. A student had asked her how much money she made a year. She told us that she made $100,000 a year.  At that moment, I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up!! As the day went on, I thought about her profession and realized from my childhood experiences that I loved history and politics. I decided that I would run for President one day and my career goal was to become a lawyer. That night, I told my father that I wanted to be President of the United States and a lawyer, he only had one question for me,

“What is the first step you are going to take to get there?”

In that one question, he did 2 things—

  1. He gave me ownership of my goals and embraced my ambitions.
  2. He made me think about short-term and long-term goals.

My response to his question:

“The first step is to pass the 6th grade!”

In that moment, I realized that school was essential to my success in attaining my career goals. In addition, I recognized that I had to work through courses that I didn’t enjoy in order to achieve my career goals.  For the first time, I was in charge of planning my own future.

Due to this realization, I took it upon myself to begin planning for my career in middle school:

  1. Read every history book I could find on each U.S. President and learned about their trajectory to the highest office in the land.
  2. Ran for student council (several times) and lost.
  3. Studied hard for all of my courses, including the ones that I didn’t enjoy.
  4. Volunteered for every local, state, and national race that I could after school and during the summers.
  5. Advocated to be placed & enrolled in college prep courses for my freshman year of high school.

​In high school, I became even more focused on my career goals:

  1. Enrolled in college prep & honors courses. Appealed and advocated to teachers allow me to take honors courses based on my interests and courses.
  2. Joined clubs based on my interests. (I finally made it on the student council!)
  3. Developed a network of teachers and counselors that supported goals and sought them out for advice throughout my time in high school.
  4. Continued to volunteer for every local, state, and national race that I could after school and during the summers.
  5. Created my resume my freshman year.
  6. Applied for every leadership and internship experience open to high school students that was based on my interests and preferences.
    1. Applied and was selected to be Congressional Page for the U.S. House of Representatives. A big reason as to why I was selected was simply because I picked up the phone and called about being an intern in my representative’s office in DC. I had never heard of the Page program.
  7. Applied to colleges that had political science programs.
  8. Met my VR counselor in my senior year to begin the process of coordinating with her to reach my career goals.

In college, I declared my major to be political science and continued to make plans to attend law school.  I found the following to be essential to my success in college:

  1. Disclosed my disability to Disability Support Services and to my professors to receive accommodations in my classes.
  2. Coordinated with my VR counselor every year to ensure that I was taking the right steps to reach long-term employment goals.  
  3. Created my own support network in college, as I did in high school, that included my family, professors, DSS coordinators, VR counselors, and supervisors.
  4. Continued to build on resume by completing internships, obtaining jobs, and taking a part of a variety of college experiences that would help me become a lawyer.
  5. Challenged myself academically by enrolling courses that would enhance my writing skills for law school.

Overall, what I have learned throughout my own experiences is that—

  1. Ownership and advocating for your career goals is essential to your success.
  2. Research is important in learning about your career field and what steps you need to take to get the job.
  3. Networking is the key to learning about leadership and employment opportunities in school and in life.
  4. Experience in the field is essential to know if this is the RIGHT career path for you. Be willing and open to have new experiences!

Thank you for reading about our personal experiences. Now, we want to hear from you! Please see the discussion questions below. If you have any questions for us, please do not hesitate to ask us. We look forward to hearing from you this week. 

Discussion Questions:

  1. What tools do you use to engage students in their own career planning?
  2. What do you see as your role in engaging the students in their career planning?

 

 

Comments

From Jessica's account, in addition to academic and vocational course content, getting information about what is required to succeed in her career goal, and planning skills, I suspect she has had to use a lot of skills such as self-discipline, persistence, resilience, optimism, resourcefulness, and zest. I wonder, Jessica and Brittanie, if either of you care to comment on the importance of those kinds of "non-cognitive" or "performance character" skills. I also wonder if practitioners here who are involved in career pathways programs include teaching youth or adults those kinds of skills, and if so, if you could tell us about what you include and how.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

 

Thank you for your comment, David. The skills you expressed (e.g., self-discipline, persistence) is important for all students of all ages to practice in school and in the workforce.  Regardless of the challenges any individual faces, it is this skill set that helps empower an individual to achieve their goals. Sadly though, many times, these skills are not taught and are up to individual to learn on their own through trial and error. Ideally, I would love to see these types of skills integrated into the academic curriculum.  Some of the most successful people in our society have always demonstrated a natural mastery of this skill set. For example, this Sunday, Derrick Coleman of the Seattle Seahawks will be playing in the Super Bowl. He is a good example of someone who has developed self-discipline, persistence, resilience, optimism, resourcefulness, and zest. Ultimately, Derrick focused on his career goal to overcome all obstacles that were placed before him to achieve his dream.  

Just to add in. Students who may not have developed all these skills, may be driven if they are encouraged by their family and schools. Working with the students to show them their goals are attainable will encourage their drive and self-discipline. Also, University that offer one-on-one help for disabed students, such as GWU's Learning Specialist, can break down the students goals into a step-by-step process making presistance easier. While having these qualities already can be hugely beneficial, students can still succeed given a supportive enviroment. 

Great discussion. Thanks all. David...you raise important points...and it is interesting how educators try to "educate" students on these non-cognitive skills - not sure this can be done? I think the supports - role models - reinforcement - are all ways that these non-cognitive skills can be addressed.

 

Jessica and Brittanie - we are so appreciative of your candor!

 

Judy

Judy, and others,

It's an interesting question as to whether or not, and if so, how educators can teach non-cognitive skills.

There is some research that suggests they can, and that it may not take as long to teach non-cognitive skills, or as they are sometimes called performance character skills, as it does to teach cognitive skills such as reading, writing, numeracy, science and social studies. An easy way to approach this research is through Paul Tough's very readable book, How Children Succeed….Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character. 231 pages (256 in reprint edition). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York. Paperback Mariner Books, reprint edition (July 2, 2013) Date of Original Publication: 2012. The context in this book is primarily children in schools, public schools as well as private and charter schools.

One lead non-cognitive skills researcher, nobel prize winning economist, James Heckman, and his colleagues have a new book on the subject, The Myth of Achievement Tests, 464 pages. 2014 University of Chicago Press. Heckman's research showing the lack of impact of passing the GED test on lifelong earnings may be well-know to adult educators here. It was this research that he says led him to explore other skills that GED holders -- and others -- need in addition to cognitive skills.

Another lead researcher who has written extensively about one of these non-cognitive skills, grit, is Angela Duckworth, at the University of Pennsylvania.

To learn more about non-cognitive skills, see citations of research, and to add information about them from your own research or professional teaching experience, go to the Adult Literacy Education (ALE) Wiki page on noncognitive skills http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Noncognitive_Skills

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

Thank you, Judy! Thank you, David, for your insight and questions!

I wanted to pass along a link to an article about personalized learning plans. The Vermont Department of Education is encouraging all students to begin thinking about career planning and development by incorporating personalized learning plans. Students can include possible college courses and internship opportunities into their plans. They have launched a website for students, teachers, and families to learn more about personalized learning plans.  To learn more about this program, please go to: http://www.reformer.com/news/ci_25022346/vermont-helps-students-personalized-learning-plans. They plan to roll out the program in the fall for 7th and 9th graders. Eventually, other grades will participate in this program. 

I want to share a quick story about how a teacher can truly impact a student with disabilities.  I have a student with disabilities that tells me she wants to work to help her single parent and two siblings.  Unfortunately, she lacks social skills and confidence.  When she asked me to help her with a resume, I was previleged to teach her  more than just writing a resume.  I empowered her to talk with confidence, shake my hand with confidence, and make eye contact.  We practiced these "non-cognitive" skills for a week.  I could see how she  was building her self-esteem and could notice she would walk into my classroom with her head up high versus facing the ground.  I asked her to set short term goals. Surprisingly, she stated her goal was to take public transportation to the mall and make contact with store managers.  I believe my student reached out on time where I took notice and interest in her goals.  Having people that care and strong support systems for students is essential for goal setting. Most importantly, follow up on their goals and plans gives them a since of being important and remembered.