By Michael Coughlin Jr.
As students at Revere High School (RHS) navigate some of their most significant years of education, several external learning opportunities (ELOs) provide the support and preparation necessary to write the next chapters of their lives.
One of these ELOs is College and Post-Secondary planning. As explained by Tiffany Currie, Coordinator of College, Careers, and External Learning Opportunities at RHS, as a first step, students are paired with guidance counselors with whom they work throughout their high school career.
Through this planning work, RHS uses tools such as Naviance and MEFA (Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority) Pathway, which Currie described as a “career exploration” piece.
Currie spoke explicitly about the MEFA Pathway tool, which helps students find what they might be interested in doing in the future through different assessments and what those students might need to do to pursue their area of interest fully.
“We hope that students are taking advantage of the tools that we have to explore some of their interests and help them formulate what their interests are,” said Currie.
She also expanded on other partnerships and programs that help students and their families through planning, such as Passport to College, which assists juniors and seniors through the college application, exploration, and financial aid process, as well as programs through the writing center, which help kids with their college essays.
Tara Mitchell, Career Development Program Coordinator at RHS, also mentioned that RHS partners with a Boston-based organization called OneGoal, which provides a post-secondary planning curriculum in English and math classes that juniors can take.
Another vital ELO supporting students at RHS is the Career Development Program, which came to fruition this fall.
The RHS website says the program provides students “with work experiences and access to a curriculum that supports students in learning about their options in the areas of career readiness.”
Mitchell, who, as mentioned, coordinates the program, indicated that the program was created due to the number of students who have fallen behind with their credit requirements because they are working a job for 25-plus hours a week.
“The Career Development Program was sort of built around the idea that we could create a cohort of students who were of this need and put a guidance counselor in charge of the program and teach a class on workplace skills, digital literacy, financial literacy, but also like self-care, personal growth, leadership, those kinds of things. While also offering support to those students to help them get to the end of the finish line for high school,” said Mitchell.
As part of the program, not only do students participate in the class Mitchell mentioned, but they can do credit recovery through an online interface, which she helps supervise, receive hands-on counseling, and more.
Additionally, as part of the program, RHS has partnered with MassHire, which has someone from its youth program come in on Wednesdays to teach a workshop on aspects such as building resumes. Moreover, Mitchell explained that she also sets up appointments for students to work with the representative from MassHire.
“I’m networking with their teachers; I’m networking with their families, I’m networking with them, and I’m networking with sort of everybody who’s invested in their success to make sure that we’re able to sort of get them what they need which is a high school diploma,” said Mitchell.
Further, a new pilot has begun this semester for a few students who completed all their credit requirements early. Mitchell explained that these students, who are out of the building all day, meet with her weekly to work individually on their plans for after high school.
Students can be in the Career Development Program for three semesters. Mitchell indicated that her goal is to grow the program so that there are more educators in addition to her providing this support for students.
In addition to its planning and Career Development program, RHS also provides an opportunity for its students to gain college credits as high school students through its early college and dual enrollment partnerships.
This year, RHS was designated as an early college high school by the Department of Education and has partnered with North Shore Community College (NSCC), in which about 70 sophomores are taking two college classes during the school day at RHS.
“Those students will continue to be a part of this program, earning almost an Associate degree before they can graduate from high school. Some will actually be able to push forward and earn an Associate degree before graduating from Revere High School,” said Currie.
Currie further explained that students will be recruited for the program each year with the ultimate goal of junior students going on the college campus for two periods a day and seniors taking a full college workload of classes.
As for dual enrollment, RHS partners with NSCC, Salem State University, Suffolk University, Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology, Fisher College, and more, where students can take college classes and earn college and high school credits simultaneously, which Currie said are free for students.
“They can take those classes to cover a high school class as well as covering an elective like Intro to Computer Science, Intro to Engineering, anything like that if they have an interest or they’re taking Composition I to cover their junior year English requirement or Composition II for their senior year,” said Currie.
For those students looking to get involved in the opportunities to earn college credits, early college is open enrollment, meaning it’s available to any student. For dual enrollment, Currie explained that the policy for entry is really up to the college itself based on factors such as the classes themselves or grade point average.
Currie also mentioned another program called Gateway to College through a partnership with NSCC, where 10 students who might have been struggling with getting all the credits they need to graduate high school are fully enrolled at NSCC while earning credit toward a high school diploma.
Last but certainly not least, RHS also offers a robust internship program. Meghann Gregorowicz, Coordinator of College, Careers, & External Learning Opportunities at RHS, explained that internships are a part of a student’s (typically seniors) school day.
While Gregorowicz explained that internships are usually done in Revere, some students go outside the city. For example, she mentioned students doing internships in Boston.
“We’re continuing to grow the number of internships that we have available. I have about 95 students right now interning,” said Gregorowicz.
She further explained that these internships span many fields, and partnerships are built with places such as a local nursing home, the Revere Chamber of Commerce, NESN (New England Sports Network), Spaulding Rehab, and more.
Also, grants are used to pay as many students as possible for doing their internships. Specifically, Gregorowicz mentioned a program called YouthWorks that can help students who are income-qualified and live in Revere get paid and a grant through the Department of Education, which pays students looking to become teachers.
MassHire also provides internship grant funding for those interning in the STEM Field, helps organize career and job fairs, field trips to partners, and much more.
“You know, we try to pay as many as we can through those grant sources,” said Gregorowicz.
“I think it’s a great experience for students to get out and gain some real-world experience, learn some new skills, see if their academic interests could potentially lead them to a career path and college,” she said of the Internship Program.
Overall, all of these ELOs are vital in supporting students at RHS, support that Currie, Mitchell, and Gregorowicz indicated is immensely important.
It should be noted that there are ways that residents can get involved in helping to support students as they plan for their future after high school.
Specifically, Mitchell explained that as part of the Career Development Program, she is looking to work with local small businesses that would be interested in supplying shadowing experience or employment pipelines for students, especially in the field of skilled labor.
Additionally, Gregorowicz provided a form for organizations or businesses if they would like to host an intern from RHS. This form can be viewed at https://forms.gle/ExjQKBFZSvcpkTwa9.
“I think it’s a necessity that we expose our students to life beyond the walls of the school building. For a lot of our first-generation students or families that are newcomers they don’t have those personal, professional, and educational experiences, so we play a vital role as educators here to do that, and I think the district has shown significant investment in external learning opportunities here,” said Currie.
