![\"\"](\"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Cabral-Marfry-683x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By Marfry E. Cabral G.<\/strong><\/p>\n Some students dream of finishing high school and going to college to have a successful career and make a lot of money. Others just want to finish high school and start their lives right away. Many people don’t even finish high school and the majority of the time it is because they are no longer engaged in learning and think there’s nothing for them to look forward to in school. In Boston high schools, many students drop out due to boredom and frustration. High schools are not providing enough non-academic career opportunities for students.<\/p>\n I interviewed Nina Culbertson, a Senior Research Associate at the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy about how to integrate vocational training and other non-academic options in Boston Public Schools.<\/p>\n Marfry<\/strong>: What kind of alternate education techniques could be used to help high school students find their career choices?<\/p>\n Nina<\/strong>: So, I think that there are a lot of opportunities for projects like this. So if you\u2019re talking to people who are not in the school so maybe each semester students could do a project where they\u2019re working with someone in a field that they\u2019re interested in. \u00a0Even if they\u2019re not working with them, just talking to them about they\u2019re interest in, there are also a lot of opportunities for earning credit for things that happen outside of school. \u00a0You can take arts classes at different schools like at the Institute for Contemporary Art and that\u2019s really cool people the people that teach you there are teaching real life things that you\u2019d be using like photo or video production so getting credit for doing things that you\u2019re really interested in is a big piece of that.<\/p>\n Some schools do that in a different way. At Boston Day and Evening Academy, you can work in a nursing type role at one of the hospitals and get credit for that and mix it with what you\u2019re doing in the classrooms. There\u2019s also the idea of service learning – so if you get credit for it, but say you do a project about something that you\u2019re really interested in and then you go volunteer your time to work at a nursing home or the department of public works if you\u2019re interested in landscaping. \u00a0You can do that a couple hours a week<\/p>\n Some people I know are trying to get other ideas off the ground in Boston: the idea that you can get \u201ccredit\u201d for skills developed in an internship or training program. and it won\u2019t be school credit, but it would be like life credit. This is called badging: you could earn badges that you could put on work applications and college applications. Let\u2019s say you went and did some work with an organization, like La Sociedad Latina, and you developed all these skills, like you were a project manager and you did some organizing for some cause, you would get those badges and you could put those on your application to your employer. \u00a0That\u2019s an idea that\u2019s becoming big now.<\/p>\n Marfry<\/strong>: Do you think that students graduate and don\u2019t go to college is because they don\u2019t feel prepared or that they don\u2019t know what they want to study or be in life?<\/p>\n Nina<\/strong>: Going to college and not knowing what you want to do can be very expensive. It doesn\u2019t necessarily prepare you for work either.<\/p>\n High school is meant to prepare you for the world after high school so if you decide not to go to college you should still be able to get a good job so these experiences that you\u2019re talking about you should be getting because if you don\u2019t go to college, it\u2019s fine. I mean most people don\u2019t go to college. Gaining skills through internships and work experience is really important so you can graduate and make money and figure out what you\u2019re going to do.<\/p>\n Marfry<\/strong>: What is your opinion about vocational high schools?<\/p>\n Nina<\/strong>: I think that across Massachusetts the vocational schools are really good, a lot of them are at least. \u00a0But the key to making vocational schools really good is having a lot of partnerships with businesses and having those businesses invest in the schools so they can have good lab space and materials so they have good teachers who have worked in that field. \u00a0So if you are in a mechanics class about repairing cars, you should have someone who has done that who can teach it to you. \u00a0If you are in a business class or entrepreneurship class or engineering class, you should have people who know that skill really well so they can teach you and prepare you for going back and doing that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Marfry E. Cabral G. Some students dream of finishing high school and going to college to have a successful career and make a lot of money. Others just want to finish high school and start their lives right away. Many people don’t even finish high school and the majority of the time it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","has-post-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":122,"url":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/alejandro-jimenez\/","url_meta":{"origin":83,"position":0},"title":"Alejandro Jim\u00e9nez","author":"Alejandro Jimenez","date":"May 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Alejandro Jim\u00e9nez What if, instead of learning through a textbook, we explored the city to expand the limit of knowledge a textbook can give us. Turning the city into a classroom will keep students engaged with new information that a textbook cannot present to them. For example,instead of learning\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/05\/DSC_8249_high-800x1199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/05\/DSC_8249_high-800x1199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/05\/DSC_8249_high-800x1199.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/05\/DSC_8249_high-800x1199.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":138,"url":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/floret-munoz\/","url_meta":{"origin":83,"position":1},"title":"Floret Mu\u00f1oz","author":"Floret Munoz","date":"April 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Floret Mu\u00f1oz Both businesses and colleges agree that high school graduates lack hard and soft skills. High school students want to learn what is expected of them outside the classroom. Internship experiences at the high school level could help them succeed, reach their full potential, and prepare them for\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Munoz-Floret-683x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Munoz-Floret-683x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Munoz-Floret-683x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":94,"url":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/lorian-de-lahoz-cruz\/","url_meta":{"origin":83,"position":2},"title":"Lorian De Lahoz Cruz","author":"Lorian de Lahoz","date":"April 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Lorian De Lahoz Cruz Having moved to United States from the Dominican Republic, I felt a huge sense of relief when I found out that I\u2019d be attending the only two-way bilingual high school in the state. I have had many positive experiences at the Margarita\u00a0Mu\u00f1iz Academy, but there\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/de-Lahoz-Lorian-683x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/de-Lahoz-Lorian-683x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/de-Lahoz-Lorian-683x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":118,"url":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/christie-k-m-higgins\/","url_meta":{"origin":83,"position":3},"title":"Christie K. M. Higgins","author":"Christie Higgins","date":"April 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Christie Higgins All my life, people have told me to speak up\u2014 that I was too quiet. I never enjoyed being the center of attention, but in music class it's the opposite. My music teacher often tells me to play a little softer. In music, I like being the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Higgins-Christie-683x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Higgins-Christie-683x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Higgins-Christie-683x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":170,"url":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/exavier-sanchez\/","url_meta":{"origin":83,"position":4},"title":"Exavier S\u00e1nchez","author":"Exavier Sanchez","date":"April 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Exavier Sanchez High school is the place where you prepare for your future. The schools could do a better job with that by supplying students the resources that they need to succeed, such as apprenticeships or more hands-on learning. I once had a friend who would always talk to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Sanchez-Exavier.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Sanchez-Exavier.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Sanchez-Exavier.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Sanchez-Exavier.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Sanchez-Exavier.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Sanchez-Exavier.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":112,"url":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/javier-antonio-suarez-gonzalez\/","url_meta":{"origin":83,"position":5},"title":"Javier Antonio Su\u00e1rez Gonz\u00e1lez","author":"Javier Jimenez","date":"April 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Javier Antonio Su\u00e1rez Gonz\u00e1lez Our school system needs to adapt to realities of the twenty-first century. Many students nowadays don't want to go to college when they graduate from high school. Some students just want to graduate, get a job, and make money. Meanwhile, high schools are designed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Suarez-Javier-683x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Suarez-Javier-683x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/04\/Suarez-Javier-683x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7wVLn-1l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/826boston.org\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}