presents Segue to the principal to receive his/her approval. Generally, principals see that Segue is an all-win program requiring no ongoing administration from a school, and no demands of teachers since they choose to opt-in, or not, and choose the frequency of their participation.

by engaging members of the community to schedule a one time, hour and a half, visit to a school of their choice to share with students their career path stories and lessons learned from the road of life. The Community Ambassador can ask individuals to be career speakers, and/or can make 3-minute announcements during local club or association meetings. After the announcement, the Community Ambassador distributes a small reminder card with the website address and summary about the Segue program. The Program Ambassador supports speaker outreach in the same manner. The more Community Ambassadors there are for a school the greater is the number of career speakers that visit the school. A script for the Segue announcement is provided, and it can be modified by the Community Ambassador. The Ambassadors can also provide a 20-30 minute talk about Segue to interested groups.

the Program at a school, with all the necessary information, and provides ongoing coaching to support speaker outreach. The Program Ambassador's time commitment is five to ten hours during the initial set-up phase of the program, and as-needed during the rest of the year to support speaker outreach activities. This generally amounts to one to four hours a week. With good support from Community Ambassadors helping with speaker outreach, the ongoing time can be even less. The Program Ambassador may also identify and engage Community Ambassadors for this form of meaningful community involvement that supports local students.

when they encourage their co-workers to volunteer as career mentor speakers in the classroom. Independent research has demonstrated that employee volunteerism increases employee retention, attraction, and morale. To see summaries of research studies click here.

on the goals of your particular school. Speaker outreach can focus on certain types of speakers, such as those having careers in science, technology, engineering, or math fields (STEM), those in the Career and Technical Education fields (CTE), those in the arts, those in the construction trades, and any other. Most often a school appreciates the value of a variety of speakers that can inspire and motivate the various populations that comprise their student body.

Speaker volunteers self-schedule online a time to speak that fits their own calendars, spend an hour-and-a-half on a campus, speak in three consecutive classes, and reach 80-100 students as they speak about their personal career path experiences. A Speaker's Guide is emailed to speakers when they sign up that supports all levels of speaking experience, including first timers. Reminder notices are emailed to each speaker before the date on which they are scheduled to speak.

It's well established that mentoring a youth can have a profound impact on their life, but few adults can commit to the time required. That's why Segue was founded. Segue leverages available adult time to enable volunteers to speak in local students' classrooms. When students see a 'possible self' in a speaker, see a career that they want, it's a game changer. They then see the relevance of school, become willing learners, work harder, and graduate high school. Many go on to attain a technical certificate, or an AA, BA, or advanced college degree. The more "Possible Selves" that students are exposed to, the more likely it is that this life-changing dynamic will occur.

Career mentor speakers become living proof for students that long-term goals are achievable; they become the evidence that the path to these goals is through additional education or training.

In addition to the twelve statistical student outcomes that Segue measures (click here for bar graph), Segue produces another tangible metric called "Possible Selves Exposure," based on the groundbreaking study, Possible Selves, by Markus and Nurius (University of Michigan, 1986). Click here for a link to the original "Possible Selves" study. One SCE is one exposure to one live career speaker for one student. When 30 speakers each speak in three classes at a school with 30 students per class, they collectively provide 2,700 SCEs in a single year (30 x 3 x 30 = 2,700).

to Segue to cover the operating fee at one school, may engage a local philanthropist or business to provide a portion of the annual fee, or may form a committee for the purpose of fundraising. Grants may also be raised from groups such as Rotary, banks, individuals, corporations, and foundations. The fee per school ranges from $4,500 is $15,000. Grants are considered for a substantial portion of this amount. Segue is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit duly registered with the IRS. Donations under this program are tax-deductible.

The contribution of the operating fee provides the selected school unlimited use of the Segue online self-scheduling system for teachers and career mentor speakers during the school year; Segue's Program Implementation Manual of Best Practices; and three annual surveys including the survey posting and data collection. A complete listing of the thirty-plus items provided to each school served by Segue is available upon request.