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Making
a difference
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An assistant principal wrote to us recounting a parent conference with
the mom of a student. She told him that her son, who had been aimless
to this point had, because of Segue, now found a career path of
interest and “this made graduating high school a new and
important priority in his life.” See also "Measured Outcomes" link at the bottom of this page.
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It's
no surprise
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that when a student is motivated, they work harder and do better in
school, they get better grades, their future looks brighter.
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Segue
is a community
collaboration
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of volunteers that serve our youth as “Career Path
Mentors” and in other ways such as technical, legal, and
planning. Volunteers are guided by a small staff to accomplish
Segue’s mission “To empower, inspire, and motivate
our youth to explore, choose, and act on their life’s
path.”
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The challenge
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of course is that no one has any time! Those in workplace have no time;
nor do the teachers that are burdened with so many responsibilities to
teach our students.
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The
Segue solution
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is for each stakeholder group, teachers and speakers, to allocate just
a small amount of time, SO THAT, in the aggregate of all the little
pieces of time, the impact on our youth is tremendous.
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Philosophers
and educators
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have said for millennia that if a student can see a point in the future
for themselves, a goal, achieving that goal is all the more likely.
This isn’t new. What is new, is how Segue brings real action
and commitment behind this idea. A teacher told us that the reason she
likes Segue is that students learn that “long term goals are
achievable.”
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The
need for Segue is huge
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One third of our students are dropping out of school and it’s
increasing each year. Most often this is due to lack of motivation or
lack of seeing the relevance of school to their lives. From the many,
here are a few other findings: • The ratio of students to
counselors is over 400 to 1 and in the precious little time available
counselors must focus on topics other than future career paths.
• RAND Corp found that "each high school dropout costs society
$243,000 to $388,000, and a career criminal costs $1.3 million to $1.5
million."
• UC Berkeley found "if high school graduation rates were just
1% higher, there would be 100,000 fewer crimes in the United States
annually, including 400 murders, and the savings would be $1.4
Billion."
• In a national study of high schools, reported in the book
Becoming Adult, the researchers concluded that: "Perhaps the most basic
personal prerequisite for a successful transition to productive
adulthood is knowledge of career options."
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A model of cost-effectiveness
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Traditional options such as career days are increasingly seen by
knowledgeable educators as wasteful, unless closely managed, since most
students view them simply as "time off" from school, and spend most of
this time socializing with their classmates and not in a focused effort
to learn about career options. With "job shadows," while the value of
experiencing a job’s real environment can be substantial,
Segue is literally 200 times as effective. Here’s the math:
With a job shadow one adult spends at least four hours and serves one
youth; with Segue, one adult spends two hours and serves 100 youth
(half the time and serving 100 vs. 1 equals 200 times more effective).
[See also the link below: “Cost Effectiveness.”]
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At-risk
youth
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are least likely to attend career days, job shadows, or explore
independently; however, Segue reaches at-risk students in classes they
already attend. Segue may be the only way that most at-risk youths are
reached in public schools and given knowledge of career options.
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Students
see a positive future
for themselves
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Ninety percent of students planning to drop out report that, as a
result of Segue, they now plan to stay in school and graduate; 89%
increase their knowledge of career options; 86% now believe that more
effort now equals more options in their future; and 83% are more likely
to continue their education with college, technical, or certification
programs. [See link at end to “Student Outcomes.”]
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Motivating
youth from inside
themselves
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Student participants see a path that appeals to them for a career, or
they learn that more education opens more options, and they want this
for themselves. These live presentations ignite in youth their own
internal engines and can catapult them forward. The process is similar
to when a young person wants a bicycle and the family budget cannot
provide it. That youth finds a way! He/she mows lawns, walks dogs,
baby-sits, washes cars. Segue is empowering to youth in a similar way,
both bringing them the knowledge of what is out there and the idea that
they can have it if they are willing to pay their dues and do good work.
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Deeper
life lessons
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are often “heard” by the students, such as that the
choices are yours to make, that any effort you put in now is for your
own future benefit, and that what you choose to do now, or not do, has
a huge impact on how your life unfolds. The bottom line lesson for
youth is that many rewards will come to them as they take personal
responsibility for their own life’s outcomes.
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How
Segue works
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Segue mobilizes a community to show its youth the way forward.
Volunteers from the workforce reinforce career path realities in
students' classrooms up to 10 or more times a year for each student.
Different speakers describe a wide range of career paths and ways that
students can explore those careers and prepare for them. Speaker
sign-up is quick due to Segue's unique online self-scheduling. Speakers
from a community are easier for teens to hear, and accept, in a way
that they often can't hear from their parents. The speakers, through
the examples of their own career paths, become living proof, multiple
times per year, of how the world works, what are the rules of the game,
and how it really is true that the choices students make now will
effect them for many years. [See also the link below: “How
Segue Works.”]
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Interconnectedness
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Children and youths. Education. Community and economic development.
Poverty. Gang prevention. Violence prevention. Teenage-pregnancy
prevention. Social scientists and our society's leaders agree on the
interconnectedness of these arenas just listed. Segue serves children
and youths in their schools by embedding it directly into their regular
classes inspiring and motivating students, making school more Relevant,
encouraging more Rigor, and creating more Relationship skills (the new
3 R’s). A fourth R that the speakers often present, Responsibility, makes for
a powerful and pragmatic set of lessons. The results support a more motivated and higher
skilled workforce, and more students choosing productive and satisfying
careers. This in turn supports community and economic development,
thereby increasing self-sufficiency and reducing poverty, which,
together with increasing students' real options for life and career,
naturally helps prevent gang participation, teenage pregnancy, and
violence.
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