During the month of February, our workshops and activities focused on post-secondary education, to support our interns in exploring the link between education and career and raising their awareness of educational options. This month, interns selected from the following series of educational events:
1) Year Up presentation: A representative from our partner Year Up spoke to a group of 12th graders about the application process for their year-long intensive training program. Year Up provides youth with 6 months of intensive and hands-on classroom training followed by 6 months in a corporate or government internship. Their success rate is extremely impressive, with 84% of graduates employed or attending college full-time within 4 months of program completion.
2) College options information session: This session was designed to meet the needs of YouthWorks’ 11th grade participants, to help them better understand the diversity of college options and the entrance requirements for each. Through a series of participatory exercises, participants explored information about community colleges, California State Universities, University of California, private colleges and financial aid. Throughout the workshop we also shared a collection of important college resources including CSU Mentor (a website designed to help students learn about and apply to the CSU), Number2.com (for free SAT and ACT preparation), and Fastweb (for scholarship searches).
3) Life after high school student panel: In this event, interns had the opportunity to learn about
college life from a panel of youth from different colleges. The panel included community college, CSU and private college students. Interns stated that they appreciated the opportunity to hear about college from this perspective, and to have their questions answered.
4) City College tour: Another group of interns had the opportunity to participate in a student-led tour of City College of San Francisco. During the tour, youth learned about the many offerings at the campus, the process for enrollment, and the many types of support services that are available to students.
Pictured: Youth explore college options in workshop and on a tour of City College of San Francisco.