Announcer (00:01):
Highlighting the amazing stories from inside the North Clackamas school district. This is the Proud To Be NCSD podcast hosted by longtime principal and current community relations director, Curtis Long.

Curtis Long (00:16):
Sometimes high school students will tell you they can just feel the nervousness in the air during memorable events in their teenage years. Like, what if the ball suddenly bounces to you during the last seconds of a big high school game? Or how now would be a really bad time to forget any of the dance moves during your team's championship routine.

Curtis Long (00:45):
Speaking of dancing. What about attending your first school dance or prom?

Prom DJ (00:49):
So ladies and gentlemen, feel free to join our prime kicking queen with your dance boy, your special someone.

Curtis Long (00:56):
But as we quickly found out during this week's podcast, perhaps the quickest way to make some North Clackamas high school juniors and seniors stomachs quiver with butterflies. Um,

Student Interviewee (01:05):
I'd say I'm very quiet when it comes to school. I don't really talk to my teachers much

Curtis Long (01:09):
Put them in their very first job interview.

Student Interviewee (01:12):
I think my greatest strength is probably being hardworking, uh, 'cause I'm an overachiever.

Curtis Long (01:17):
That's Adrienne C. Nelson High School Junior, Jennifer Zhen, who along with all 11th graders in the North Clackamas School District, is currently enrolled in a course required by the district called College and Careers. The class is designed to give our high school students some real world experience in pursuing careers, including industry research, resume building, and perhaps the most important and the most anxiety-ridden practice. They receive interviewing skills.

Student Interviewee (01:41):
So I feel like I'm very involved with teamwork. Like I love working with other people and I feel like this is the type of job where like you're involved with a lot of families and like workers as well.

Curtis Long (01:49):
Today on the Proud To Be NCSD podcast, we've updated our resume to listen in to the impressive answers. Students like Nelson Junior, Kiana Castello, confidently prepared to share.

Student Interviewee (01:59):
That's something I very much need to work on, is being more like outgoing and talking more because I keep everything to myself

Curtis Long (02:05):
And learn more about this unique high school course offering now in its ninth year as a curriculum requirement as we visit with Nelson High's college and career teacher Aaron Hazel, along with Kim Amador and Brittanie Strutz, two teachers on special assignment who have helped shape the college and career curriculum into a term worth of lessons that some students say they don't know what they would've ever done without.

Student Interviewee (02:26):
It was a pleasure meeting you too.

Curtis Long (02:27):
So let's get our job appropriate. Attire on. Remember to make eye contact and give a firm handshake. It's a first job interview edition of the Proud To Be NCSD podcast...next.

Curtis Long (02:40):
Oh, can you feel your collar getting a little tighter listening to some of those high school students? Welcome in to another edition of the Proud To Be NCSD podcast. As we mentioned in that quick introduction. Today we are thrilled to have Adrienne C. Nelson High School, college, and career teacher Aaron Hazel, along with Kim Amador and Brittanie Strutz, two NCSD teachers on special assignment who've helped shape that course curriculum. Aaron, Kim. Brittanie, thanks so much for taking time outta your busy schedules to join us today.

Kim Amador (03:02):
Thank you for having us.

Curtis Long (03:04):
Alright, as we usually do here on the podcast, because we are just audio, there's no video here. I know you guys were a little afraid of that. There's no video camera. We like to have our guests introduce themselves. Tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to working in your current position here in North Clackamas.

Aaron Hazel (03:19):
Aaron Hazel, I teach college career readiness here in Nelson High School. I'm also, um, our head football coach recently, uh, head softball coach as well. I have, this is my 20th year of teaching and I am extremely fortunate to be in a district that takes college career readiness seriously and commits to it like, like we do. I, I love what I teach. I spent 16 years as a math teacher and weights teacher and PE and all the different classes, every math class you can think of. And I absolutely love what I teach now. I, I can, it's real easy to come and sell life skills and stuff that these kids that I, I can tell 'em that this is the most important class they're ever gonna take. 'cause I promise them, promise you you're gonna have to interview for a job. I promise you, unless you live off the grid completely, you're gonna have to pay taxes and you're gonna have to look for a job. You're gonna have to figure out how you're gonna prepare, how you're gonna budget, how you're gonna, you know, get health insurance, all those kind of things and cover all those things in this class.

Curtis Long (04:20):
And we're recording it right now in Aaron's classroom. And I can see up on the board there are different units that are up on the board and what dates you're gonna be doing certain things, resume jobs, search, cover letter, preparing for an interview. It's kind of an outline for the whole podcast right there on the board. Thanks for putting that up there. Kim, how about you?

Kim Amador (04:35):
Okay. Hi, I am Kim Amador and um, this is my eighth year in the district as a teacher on special assignment. I'm a former high school English teacher, so I definitely love working with students and working in, um, the school community. This was a really wonderful opportunity to come and help to design this curriculum and bring teachers from all across the district. First in our 11th grade class where it kind of pioneered. And then also to help to build a curriculum for the ninth grade college and career readiness one class. Um, over the last couple of years it's been really, uh, inspiring to witness students kind of have those light bulbs go off about wow, I can actually begin planning my future right now and I have some great tools to learn how to do so.

Curtis Long (05:27):
Alright, Brittanie, your turn...

Brittanie Strutz (05:27):
Alright, um, I am Brittany Strutz. This is my third year in North Clackamas as a college and career readiness tosa. Before that, I taught high school math and language arts for many years, and now I get to do really fun things with our amazing teachers and Kim ninth grade teams. Every year it feels like we're trying to add more experiences for students to get prepared for college and beyond.

Curtis Long (05:49):
And this is a class that's evolved over the years. As we mentioned before, it's in its ninth year, so it certainly looks different in year nine than it looked like in year one, I would imagine. Definitely.

Brittanie Strutz (05:57):
And college and career one. This is only our third year, so it's

Curtis Long (06:01):
Also, there are two different ones. Mm-hmm . Let's make sure our listeners understand. So there's college career one. Mm-hmm . College and Career two. Those young ladies who were recorded at the beginning, that's college and career two. Those are mm-hmm . Uh, job interviews. So let's talk about the two different classes. So college and career one is offered for what grade level? Ninth graders. Ninth graders. Mm-hmm . So freshman have college career one and Aaron, do you teach that one as well?

Aaron Hazel (06:21):
No, I just have the 11th grade class.

Curtis Long (06:23):
Just the 11th graders. So Kim and Brittanie, tell us a little bit about the differences between ninth grade college and career and 11th grade college and career.

Kim Amador (06:29):
So, our ninth grade college and career class is really a foundational class for the college and career readiness class two, which, um, students take in their 11th grade year. So college and career readiness one really helps to support our ninth grade students in that really fundamental kind of critical year to help them be a strong high school student, build community, really develop like those relationships, skills and collaborative skills as well as, you know, kind of just begin to plant the seeds for, you know, what they wanna do in the future so that they feel ready by the time they get to 11th grade. And where that's really kind of that launching board of, you know, kind of more in depth college research and looking at career pathways that potentially align with their interests. And really both classes really helped students to explore their curiosities, their skillset, you know, kind of just planting those seeds for future possibilities.

Curtis Long (07:27):
So that's ninth grade, then they get to 11th grade and they get to Mr. Hazel. So what are they doing in 11th grade college and career?

Aaron Hazel (07:33):
Yeah, we, we break down, we have four units that we follow. So we do a career exploration where we are searching and looking at at personality assessments, Myers Briggs test, multiple intelligence assessments, trying to figure out strengths of each of our students so they can explore jobs and careers that may fit their personality type, may fit their strengths. And they might be interested in, I don't know if you know, these kids were like me when I was in high school and there was doctor or lawyer, teacher, engineer. The only jobs you could have, I didn't like blood and my biology teacher told me not to be a doctor . Um, so I was kind of limited and I just didn't know what was out there. So we spent a lot of time exploring what's out there. At the end of that unit, they do a career, a deep dive, um, career research project where they try to find out what's, what education is required of this, what is the lifestyle look like, what's the day in the life of a auto mechanic look like, what's the day in the life of a logistics specialist look like?

Aaron Hazel (08:31):
That moves us into unit two, which is financial literacy. Again, I touched on earlier, you know, paying taxes, budget. Yeah. Paying for insurance. What does insurance cover? Why do we have it? And then we go into, at the end of that unit, we do a month long personal budget based off of the income that we looked up in our career research project. So trying to figure out what does that first year structural engineer make and, and what is that gonna look like? Where am I gonna be able to live? And then we go into our post-secondary exploration. So what are we gonna do after high school? We explore everything. I, I, I really love that we get to talk about community colleges and, and what's available with the Oregon Promise. Four year colleges, trade school, military, going straight to work. Yeah. What, what does that look like? And then we go into unit four, which is what we're talking about today is job readiness. So, and our goal in this is that it is come out of this unit or this class with a resume that they can use this spring and summer looking for a part-time job. They can have a cover letter ready to go, and then have some interviewing skills so that they can a little leg up over the competition.

Curtis Long (09:30):
So as we record this, it's late January, it's the end of the term. So those kids we heard at the beginning, they are finishing up this course for this first fall term.

Aaron Hazel (09:37):
They're finishing up and on, uh, next Monday I got a whole new batch.

Curtis Long (09:41):
You get a whole new group of coming in. Yeah. A whole new group coming in. So they start out in this class, and I imagine some of them have never had a job before, never understood what taxes, what do you mean? They take part of my paycheck out?

Curtis Long (09:52):
And that's probably what the goal of this is, right? Mm-hmm

Brittanie Strutz (09:55):
. Definitely. Um, I will say one student I interviewed last week, she was very nervous and by the end she kinda said, I, you know, I said, is there anything you wanna ask me as a teacher and interviewer? And she goes, well, I'm actually applying for this job and interviewing in a few days, so can you ask, tell me how you would answer this question? And it was awesome. Like, yeah, okay. It was a zoo internship for the summer. And so she was taking it very seriously and asking, what's a group interview? What's a, you know, so it was really applicable to what she was doing right then and there

Curtis Long (10:23):
And how cool that our students have access to that, that, that we are really thinking about their future beyond, beyond high school.

Aaron Hazel (10:29):
Yeah. Yeah. It's one of those things when I am with my friends in all different industries and, and you know, when you're adults and you get together and that question, what you do comes up. And when you say teacher, what do you teach? And I tell 'em what I teach, and I mean, the consensus is, wow, I wish we would had that in high school. And so kids don't know it now, , they have this class. Yeah. But it, it is awesome. And you know, Brittany just kind of touched on it, when we do the interviews, it's not just for a part-time job. We, they're selecting either a job or an internship, but really something that's focused on their long term professional growth pathway. You know, we can get a job at a local fast food place Sure. Or, or a chain, you know, store. And that's gonna be, that's gonna put some money in our pocket and help us do some things with our friends and all that kind of stuff.

Aaron Hazel (11:19):
But it may not help us in our long term goals. So having our students really look at, if we want to be a chef, getting a dishwashing job at one of the fine dining places around here and then saying, Hey, whenever there's an opportunity, I want to jump on the line, that's gonna help you get that, that next step job down the road. Or doing an internship at the zoo. If you want to go into zoology or animal science, you know, doing a business internship somewhere is gonna help you in that, that business administration management program. So having kids think not just three inches front of their face, but down the road, what's gonna help me four years from now, five years from now.

Curtis Long (11:56):
While there's no doubt our NCSD college and career courses do help students think about four and five years from now, they also have our ambitious teenage job seekers thinking about how to gain real world skills today they can apply to tomorrow's jobs. So far we've heard about the different skills taught between college and career, one in ninth grade and college and career two in 11th grade up next. How quickly can those new tools learned by NCSD students start to literally pay off

Aaron Hazel (12:23):
In our mock interviews, I've had a couple students get at the end of interview, get a card from, we get volunteers from all over the community, come and get a car that says, Hey, call me in the summer. I wanna offer you a job.

Curtis Long (12:34):
And what's the best part about helping teenagers take those first steps toward turning a passion into a rewarding career?

Kim Amador (12:40):
Those opportunities that I get here and there to see kind of the light bulbs go off in our students and see them getting excited about their future. And even just with the mock job interviews, getting to hear them speak about themselves and be like, wow, I've actually really done a lot with my life so far and I have a lot to look forward to.

Curtis Long (12:58):
And we still have a lot to look forward to as well. Proofread that resume as we shake hands with the second half of our college and career edition of the Proud to be NCSD podcast right after this.

Commercial Announcer (13:10):
Are you looking for a job right now? Looking to work in a fun and supportive environment with great pay and a rewarding career? The North Clackamas school district is hiring. We're currently filling full and part-time positions. You can work and make a difference in young lives and education as a classroom assistant or a substitute teacher apply to work in one of our school cafeterias where our lunch staff serves up big smiles with great food every day. We're also looking to hire before and after school caretakers, custodians, and bus drivers in North Clackamas. We promise it won't take you long to learn why our employees say they're proud to be in NCSD Apply today on the North Clackamas school district website or call 5 0 3 3 5 3 6,000. That's 5 0 3 3 5 3 6,000.

Curtis Long (14:04):
Now Aaron, you've been doing this for a while. So do students come back to you maybe post-graduate, they come back and say, okay, guess what Mr. Hazel, guess what I'm doing right now?

Aaron Hazel (14:12):
Yeah, , I get a little bit of, uh, in the summer they'll come, I'll see somebody, they go, I, I used my resume. I got a job. Or, you know, during the interview they said I was one of the most prepared students and stuff. So you get a lot of that, which is nice. I've had, in our mock interviews, I've had a couple students get at the end of the interview, get a card from, we get volunteers from all over the community. They come and get a card that says, Hey, call me in the summer. I wanna offer you a job. Those kind of things. So, uh, it, it is really rewarding even though they don't always enjoy it at the time. Yeah. down the road. Yes. Yes it is.

Curtis Long (14:44):
So Kim and Brittanie to hear what Aaron just said, they have kids come back and they're excited about what they're doing and hey, I used my resume. How rewarding is that for you, knowing that you kinda were laying the groundwork for this course?

Kim Amador (14:55):
Yeah, I think that is one of the most rewarding aspects of this career path that, you know, I'm on and working with Brittanie and the teachers. And I think one of the really special things about this program as well is that Oregon voters, you know, voted this into legislation and it was really, you know, the primary kind of mission of it was to, you know, support all students with their college and career readiness and also help to remove barriers for students who are traditionally underserved or marginalized. So that doors of possibility are open for all students and that they have the knowledge and the information that they need to be able to make those educated choices and have, um, supportive adults, you know, in their classroom, teaching them, guiding them, giving them all of the materials that they need. And then also community members that we partner with help to provide opportunities with career, uh, shadowing career days and things like that. So it's just amazing to see students make those connections and have just such a supportive adults models and mentors in their lives.

Curtis Long (16:03):
So you mentioned that we have some community partnerships. What a great way to connect with our community. And we have business leaders coming in and maybe giving some lectures or advice and some were a part of the mock interviews to be a part of the interviewers. How do you go about gathering those? Or do they come to us saying, Hey, we heard, do you have this program in your district?

Kim Amador (16:20):
So we have a really robust partnership with Portland Workforce Alliance, and they're a nonprofit organization that have a great network of business professionals from all across the state, from, you know, Nike and Widen and Kennedy to, you know, startup companies, um, from the trades. And so they partner with them to create these career days for students and students can sign up for them and go, you know, shadow nurses at Providence or Kaiser Permanente. They also host a, a really wonderful careers expo in the spring where, you know, we have got thousands of vendors from across the state that are there to speak to students about their career pathways.

Curtis Long (17:03):
And don't we take all of our high school juniors, they all go on one day. If I remember correctly,

Kim Amador (17:08):
The whole district of 11th graders goes all in one day.

Curtis Long (17:11):
It's like nothing. But North Clackamas yellow buses pulling up to the convention center there.

Kim Amador (17:15):
Exactly.

Curtis Long (17:16):
I remember that.

Brittanie Strutz (17:16):
We take all of our eighth graders up to the Sabin Schellenberg Center mm-hmm . So they can kind of look at some of the cool electives available to them and kind of plan out what classes they wanna take as ninth graders this year. And last year we started taking all of our ninth graders to Clackamas Community College, which has been super cool. And so we have a good partnership with them and get a tour that Oregon City campus and learn about the Oregon Promise and some of the cool, um, opportunities available to Oregon residents. So it's really fun.

Curtis Long (17:41):
Aaron, do you ever have kids that are picking a career based on what the salary says on a piece of paper?

Aaron Hazel (17:49):
Absolutely. My, my child include that . Uh, you know, that's a factor. Yeah. And sure, it's, it is, it'd be naive for us to say like, Hey, chase this job, and it doesn't matter how much money pays. We talk about what are your strengths and, and what do you lean into? You know, nobody, I don't, I don't necessarily think anybody grows up wanting to be a granite table fabricator. Right. However, if they're really good at sales and they're really good at some of these things, you can do really well in those, in those areas. So, um, we've kind of found, and we talked to our students about find out what you're really good at and apply that to something and you'll turn out, turns out you usually like what you're good at and you have a lot of success down down the road doing that. You know, one of the things I love about this class is it's the most student centered class I've ever taught. I mean, everything is about the individual. And then when we do the mock interviews, the students that come back into the classroom, they do their 15 minute interview and they come back and seeing the kids talk to each other and ask about the questions they got and first compliment the volunteers that come in , thank them for being so nice, but talk to each other and really collaborate, like authentic student collaboration on, on, I answered the question this way. How'd you, did you get the same question? How did you answer it? Oh, I shouldn't

Curtis Long (19:04):
.

Aaron Hazel (19:05):
Um, but seeing those students really, really not only just fo have some time dedicated, um, time in their their day to focus on themselves, their long-term growth, but also collaborate with each other. Uh, it, it's an awesome class.

Curtis Long (19:18):
We talked about that there are some students who have never experienced this type of thing before, never had a job before, maybe don't know what a resume is or what it entails. They're walking away with skills they otherwise maybe wouldn't have learned or to be their family's responsibility to teach those to 'em. So that must be pretty rewarding to see that on for students who had no idea when they came into the classroom.

Aaron Hazel (19:38):
Do you remember writing your first cover letter or

Curtis Long (19:41):
Kind of, I, I don't think it was in high school. I think I maybe learned how in college

Aaron Hazel (19:45):
I, I I never, I just remembered applying for a job. Yeah. Cover letter and being like, I think I'm gonna pass on this 'cause I don't know what to do here. So yeah. Give these kids these skills and give us some confidence at the end of our mock interviews, the, the confidence level, our students is sky high and they go in super nervous. Yeah. Uh, they don't know the people they're interviewing with. It's not, they're not interviewing with me, their teacher. They're not interviewing with their counselor. Mm-hmm. It is, uh, I don't wanna say a random, it is a person from the community. Yeah. It would be like any other job interview where you just show up and then they walk out with the idea that I can do this. It's, it's scary, but I can do it.

Curtis Long (20:26):
I can do that. And I remember you came in, I, I happened to be one of the interviewers when you heard that recording at the very beginning of the podcast and Aaron, you said you had basically three things that they had. They had to dress appropriately, which some of them may have forgotten. It was interview day. So make sure as an interviewer that you let them know, Hey, probably don't wanna wear sweats to an interview. Uh, and what were the other two that you wanna make sure people know?

Aaron Hazel (20:46):
Yeah. So, so they got graded on Yes. They're having appropriate attire. Yep. Right. For a job for a high school student introducing themselves. That's right. Do they make eye contact? Do they shake hands? Did they give you their first name? Did they ask you for your name? And then did they have follow up questions? You know, we talk about it does not matter what job you're interviewing for what industry. The last question of almost every interview I've been a part of is, do you have any questions for us? And we said, the answer is always yes and have some research based questions. So asking those questions. So those three things, and then the rest of the feedback form that our volunteers give to them is just for the student. Just to reflect on how that went. And again, teaching for 20 years, giving a student a feedback form on their, their performance, their work, and having them look at more than just the score is pretty awesome. . Yeah. Pretty rare.

Curtis Long (21:37):
They really want to read the feedback because

Aaron Hazel (21:38):
They really want to read this feedback versus just look and go, okay, I got 10 outta 10, I'm

Curtis Long (21:42):
Good. I'm good. Yeah. That's it. And I can tell that one of the follow up that you must have gone over with your students, because I got it several times when I was being a, an interviewer, was, well, what types of things are you looking for in an ideal candidate? I got that question over and over and it was kind of fun because it was kind of a, it was a job that's not, it's not real. So we could kind of make that, well, I'm looking for someone that's self-confident. I'm looking for someone that's willing to learn. And the kids were great about following up on that and said, oh yeah, I can show you how I've done that before. And so it's something you've obviously worked on.

Aaron Hazel (22:10):
It's the cheat code. Yeah. Yeah. You know, what's, what two or three characteristics are you looking for in the ideal candidate? And then hopefully the, the person across it gives you really what they're looking for this job. And you, you got an opportunity to provide some evidence of where does this show up As a high school student, I, I may not have any work experience, but I'm part of a team. Mm-hmm . The choir. I'm in this club, I, I I volunteer with our, our key club. Where do those skills that you're looking for, even though I don't have sales experience, even though I don't have administrative experience, but I do have this where I work as a team or where I've served my community and I can, I can throw that back at you. Yeah. Okay. Said, this is another reason why I'm, I am the ideal candidate.

Curtis Long (22:51):
I'm the person you should hire. For sure. And then I had one of my colleagues who I could overhear next to me saying, well, there is a company car involved with this . I hope you're okay with that. And it is hybrid. So on Fridays you can work from me, you can work from home if that's okay with you. It's like, you can't say that to them. It was pretty fun to do. Brittany Struts, Kim Amador and Aaron Hazel, thanks so much for joining us. Before we let you go, just give us a synopsis. And I know you've kind of talked about this already, but what is the best part about having this particular position in the district for each of you?

Aaron Hazel (23:19):
For me, it's, it's being able to every day sell something to our kids that I know they're going to use and be able to tell 'em, this is the most important class you're ever gonna take. I promise you you're gonna use this stuff and know that I'm not f .

Curtis Long (23:36):
Yeah. Mm-hmm

Kim Amador (23:37):
. I love everybody that I work with. I feel like this is a very strong team effort, collaboration. And so just the inspiration of working with other people who are as interested and as supportive to our students and future generations is always so inspiring. And then, yeah, I just, those opportunities, you know, that I get here and there to see, you know, kind of the light bulbs go off in our students and see them getting excited about, um, their future. And even just with the mock job interviews, getting to hear them, you know, speak about themselves and be like, wow, I've actually really done a lot with my life so far and I have a lot to look forward to. And those are some of my favorite things.

Brittanie Strutz (24:18):
That's a hard question. I like so many things about my job. I think it's, it's really fun. It's, it's cool to be able to go to all of our middle schools and all of our high schools and get to, um, work with different groups of teachers and chat with students at some of these fun events. And, um, I don't know. I, I love what we do, so I'm happy to be here.

Curtis Long (24:33):
And Aaron, I think you summed it up best when you said, I promise you this is, you're going to use this sometimes because how many of our high schoolers go into a class, I'm not going to name specific classes, but they go into it thinking, when am I ever gonna do this again? When am I ever gonna use this? And I think, Aaron, you are right on the money. You are gonna use this. I promise you you're going to use this. And I bet many of our kids have come back and said, you know what, Mr. Hazel was right. I did use this. I used all of it. Thank you so much for being with us today and telling our community a little bit more about our college and career program.

Brittanie Strutz (25:01):
Thank you. Thank you.

Curtis Long (25:03):
Thanks for listening to the Proud To Be NCSD Podcast. In North Clackamas, we know that education is a community effort and we're so thankful that you and your family are a part of our community. Until next time, remember, there are always great things to see wherever you go in NCSD.