Merced Union High School District

Livingston High School students were able to receive crash courses in skills they’ll need to have after high school as the school hosted its Career/Adulting Day on Thursday. Students were able to sign up for different adulting and career sessions, which lasted about 50 minutes.

 

The adulting skills offered included public speaking, travel tips, how to fix a hole in the wall/drywall repair, how to rent an apartment, car care, parental crash course and gardening. “The teachers came together and they each came up with different workshops, and then I provide supplies if they need them,” said Livingston principal Charles Jolley. “We just kind of coordinate together.”

 

Sophomore and seniors were able to take the adulting workshops offered. Meanwhile, the freshmen and juniors were able to select career presentations to attend in different classrooms. There was a wide variety of careers represented like the Merced County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, electricians, physical therapists, financial advisors, nursing, U.S. Coast Guard, real estate, PG&E and emergency medical technicians. 

 

“I think it's great for the businesses to have that opportunity to give back and they enjoy it,” Jolley said. “I think for us, it's great for kids to get to interact in ways they wouldn't get an opportunity to do. To be able to bring these people to our school, and for them to take time out of their day, I think, is really special and cool. So I really appreciate it. For the kids to get to hear directly from people working in these positions is really great. It’s also very current. They're literally working in the jobs right now, so they have the best information to give the kids about what they do or how to get to where they are in life after high school. So it's the best advice.”

The wet weather forced some teachers to change their plans. Livingston teacher Steven Wine had planned to teach his gardening course outside, but moved the lesson inside. Livingston teacher Manuel Murrillo was impressed with the students’ work after he showed them how to patch up a hole in drywall. “These kids actually know how to do this,” Murrillo said. “They watched the video and my demonstration and they actually took to it and demonstrated they could do it.”

 

Murrillo said he enjoyed teaching the kids a practical skill they can use in their everyday life. The wet weather didn’t keep Livingston art teacher Lily Walker from showing students some car maintenance skills. Students learned how to check their oil, tire pressure, change their windshield wipers and other basic car care needs. Livingston English teacher Roxana Salazar Pimentel gave a crash course on parenting where students were given a list of baby supplies and asked which ones were necessary for the baby. 

 

Livingston student Alexis Meza helped Murrillo with his demonstration and was also impressed with how quickly the kids picked up the skills. “It was interesting, because I don't know if many of these kids ever learned anything like this,” Meza said. “I remember when I first learned. It was something new. It’s like you’ve seen it, but you never really tried it. Some of these kids probably haven’t worked with tools before.”

 

Jolley says the staff have surveyed students in the past to ask what type of adulting skills they would like to learn to help tailor the day for them. Staff have also given their input on how the event should be set up and scheduled. That’s how a switch was made so half of the students could focus on careers and the other half could focus on adulting skills.

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.