By Stephanie Lampe
West Greene Junior-Senior High School has recently introduced a program called WG Pathways. This program brings WG Alumni into the school to speak with current WG students about their own career, college, military, workforce, and/or general life experiences, or the path that the WG alumni followed after graduating high school.
Former West Greene student Hannah Reed brought the idea to the district. She graduated in 2017 and is currently a junior at Allegheny College majoring in neuroscience. Hannah has had a fair amount of interactions with alumni from Allegheny College. Students are encouraged to develop relationships with alumni which can lead to later opportunities. Hannah believes this kind of program would be beneficial to high school students because that’s when big decisions for the future are made. College, trade school, military, workforce? The paths are numerous and can be overwhelming. The goal of WG Pathways is to show current students the variety of opportunities that are available after graduation and can create any path they can imagine.
“I really just wanted to make something available to West Greene students that could help them make well-informed decisions about what to do after high school,” Hannah says. “Our hope is that this program provides our students with insight into the many opportunities that await them after graduation.”
Hannah conducted research on her idea last summer and presented her findings to West Greene students this past December. A team was created to realize this new program; team members include Hannah Reed, school counselor Kim Cowden, former West Greene student Rachel Jones, and faculty members Eric Armstrong and Kurt Jones. Other faculty and administration will have small roles periodically once the program is implemented. The first round of speakers are scheduled for April 2020.
Hannah believes this program will not only be informative, but also inspiring. “These people sat in the same seats you are sitting in, and they were able to make it to this great career that they are proud of and love – you can do it to!”
Kim Cowden, West Greene school counselor, added that it is “to help students to explore their career interests and gain real world knowledge on post-secondary plans and possibilities.”
Hannah has been working on developing some broad concepts for the program which include: a small group setting that emphasizes conservation and interaction, including alumni from all career paths and all ages, and encouraging alumni to share their own unique path with any bumps or surprising turns along the way, and things they wished they had known in high school. Hannah has also been developing outlines and documents for the program to use.
Mrs. Cowden fills a different role in WG Pathways. She works with other team members to set up the presentations, handles the scheduling, collects the presenters’ RSVPs, helps with the database of WG Alumni, and promotes the presenters to the students and the program itself.
Hannah and Mrs. Cowden are excited and encouraged with the initial response from alumni. They’ve had over 30 people express interest. Mrs. Cowden shares, “I am pretty impressed with the number of responses in the short amount of time.”
Hannah appealed, “If you are a West Greene alum, please consider reaching out and being a presenter. Please also spread the word to anyone you might know that might be interested.”
WG Pathways can be contacted via email: WG.pathwayday@gmail.com.
