Engaging Students with (Virtual) Alumni Speakers
As the school year continues, with many still in distance learning, keeping students engaged can continue to be a challenge. This month’s newsletter highlights a school’s use of alum as experts that can offer insights and show students the diverse college and career paths that are available to them.
Katherine R. Smith Elementary school in San Jose, CA has over 600 students TK-6. Each year, they host a College Day where students celebrate that going to college is a possibility. Under normal circumstances, the school coordinates a pep rally where each class shows off their class-adopted college pride. As this year is still in distance learning, they pivoted to a webinar to have guest speakers to talk to the students about college and the opportunities that came afterwards. In prior years, they have utilized community members and school staff, including their teachers and the principal, as speakers. Since it was virtual, they were able to cast a wider net to recruit their guest speakers.
Cheryl Bautista, Instructional Coach at Katherine Smith shared “We were lucky enough to find an alum of our school district and a former member of our neighborhood to make the presentation. That made all the difference. It was such a valuable experience for the students. They were engaged and hung on to every word from the alum because they knew that this person was someone they could identify with, someone who understood the life challenges most of these children might experience. Sharing her college and career journey gave them hope and opened up new and exciting possibilities for their future. If they weren’t thinking about college before, they are definitely thinking about it now.” Thank you, Cheryl for sharing your Power of Alumni story!
“Sharing her college and career journey gave them hope and opened up new and exciting possibilities for their future.”