iJAG provides HCHS students with life skills, experiences in community

    HARLAN – Since September, students at Harlan Community High School have had an opportunity to explore careers and learn life skills that will serve them in pursuing careers or education beyond high school.
    Lori Pilachai, HCHS education specialist with Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates (iJAG), said students at HCHS made preliminary entries in four categories for the statewide career development conference were successful in three categories to go to state on March 23.
    “If any of our HCHS people win first place then we get to go participate nationally in Orlando in April,” she said.
    iJAG is a non-profit organization that connects business and education to provide school-to-career solutions in Iowa. Around 20 students are in the credited class at the high school. The HCHS iJAG program was one of 50 being launched throughout the state in 2022.
    With the HCHS program in just its first year, Pilachai said it was a little unusual that the program is going to state, and especially in three different areas.
    Pilachai said two student representatives participated in Legislative Days, where they spoke to Iowa Rep. Steve Holt (R-Denison) in Des Moines to let him know  about iJAG and ask for his continued support.
    Students are competing in prepared speaking, and a business plan that the students came up with for a product in Shark Tank style.
    “The other one is employability skills,” she said. “Our president turned in her resume and cover letter and she’ll get to participate in a mock job interview.”
    Pilachai said one of the students is too young to compete, but he was the “idea man” behind the business plan, so he was accepted as one of 20 in the state to be an ambassador.
    “The main point is to try to help the students think about their future from a realistic standpoint,” Pilachai said. “Right now we’re working on a project called an apartment simulation packet. So instead of telling them life is hard and everything’s expensive, they get to figure out where they want to live, Google actual apartments and figure out how much everything costs.”
    Pilachai said she’s enjoyed watching students do the apartment simulation.
    “Some of them are taking it really seriously,” she said. “Almost everything has something to do with work based learning, but also we want to think about career readiness.”
    Pilachai said they try to have the students learn through these projects instead of lecturing.
    Along with projects, students visit different employers and have different employers come to the school, as well as plan for college visits.
    Pilachai said college isn’t for everybody so iJAG is trying to offer more opportunities such as CompTIA – Computing Technology Industry Association, a non-profit trade association that issues professional certifications in the IT industry.
    “With these CompTIA certifications with their certification and their diploma, they could step out of high school making good money,” she said.     
    Junior Jaiden Sampson is participating in the CompTIA program. She said she joined because she wants a music career but knows it won’t pay right away.
    “I know CompTIA will help me financially,” she said. “It really does help and it’s pretty easy to understand once you get the hang of it.”
    Pilachai said iJAG is not about telling students what to do.
    “It’s a lot of listening and having them share with me what they want to do through their projects, exploring different things and then help them with college applications or visit employers if that’s where they want to go,” she said. “It’s very individualized.”