Dean's Transcript ~ Career Education

This course is designed to give Dean the opportunity to experience several different work environments and develop skills that will help him in the workforce in years to come. He volunteered in three different environments. He worked for 151 hours.

Nature Center Junior Naturalist Program ~ Dean worked 37 hours at our local nature center during their summer Junior Naturalist Program. He worked in three different stations each day during his four hour shift. He worked in the nature lab, Appalachian station and the barn. He cleaned a lot, took care of the goats, taught the public how to touch the turtles, answered the public's questions about animals, and gave out basic information about the nature center. He helped with research, bird count and maintenance of the Appalachian Station. He always had a teammate and practiced social skills and sometimes needed to encourage his teammate to do her portion of the job. The nature center was pleased with his service and said he was welcome back.

ZaPow Art Gallery ~ Dean volunteered for six shifts of two hours each at ZaPow. This was an opportunity provided by his art teacher in which he learned about how the gallery store is maintained on a daily basis. He swept, recycled, hung new art work for sale, straightened paintings on the wall, painted and spackled walls for new art layouts, sorted bins to put away misplaced art and did general cleaning of the staff back room. His boss, Laura Harkrider Sheridan, said that he did a wonderful job.

ACDT's Mayan Adventures Camp Counselor ~ Dean worked for three weeks as a volunteer head counselor at Mayan Adventure camp. The campers were ages 8-12 and were mostly boys. Different campers were there each week. He worked a total of 90 hours.  He refereed games, helped with the clay table, led campers on long hikes and games in the woods, taught stage combat, watched campers at the pool, and taught hand sewing and woodworking skills. He also learned to work with a junior counselor who didn't pull his weight, was rude to campers and generally needed lots of redirection. He spoke to his boss about the junior counselor and followed his advice in dealing with him. His boss, Giles Collard, said that he did a wonderful job and was welcome to come back next year.

Documentaries and Life Lessons ~ 

• Innovator's Tribe ~ An engineering course online to teach about what a career in engineering would be like.
• Movie ~ Minimalist ~ This movie talked about the importance of doing what you love and creating a lifestyle where you do not need tons of material objects so that you can be happy and do your dream job instead of chasing the newest flashy thing that society acts like we all need. 
• Movie ~ Happy ~ This movie talks about how happiness comes from hard work, a loving community and pride in a job well done and caring for others first. 

Dean achieved an A for this course. He conquered some of his uncomfortable feelings of working with the public and was complimented by all of his bosses. He loved the camp counseling job the best. 

Blessings, Dawn