Students at Archer Street School Explore a Galaxy of Careers

Archer Street School launched its fourth annual career day entitled, “A Galaxy of Careers.” The event enabled children to encounter different career choices and encourage them to reach for the stars.

Dressed in navy blue T-shirts made specifically for the event, students explored such fields as TV production, graphic design, firefighting, dentistry, accounting and law with professionals from the community--some using props and materials to get their points across.

“We teach the children that they can be whatever they want to be if they try hard and put in the effort,” said Paula Lein, principal of Archer School.

New to this year’s extensive lineup were hairdressing and pilates.

“A lot of girls and boys love to do hair and makeup and they don’t realize that they have to go to school for that,” said Elizabeth Biscotti, school social worker and one of the coordinators of the event. “Pilates was a great addition this year because a lot of the kids didn’t know what pilates was. Also interesting for them to see was a female as an accountant. Some of them may not have realized that women are professionals as well.”

A few weeks before the event, each teacher works on different activities to teach the children about different occupations, according to Stacie Tramontozzi, a school guidance counselor and also a coordinator of the event.  In the older grades, children are taught skills such as how to write a resume and in the younger grades they make puppets and put on puppet shows about people in different professions. The children also use an “interactive wall.”  The wall has pictures of people in different careers and word bubbles that give descriptions of different careers. The children are asked to match up the careers with the correct word bubbles.

 “Career Day integrates all areas of curriculum into one special event,” Tramontozzi added. “It heightens awareness of careers and gives the students a reason to go to school and do well.”

The program also ties into the school’s Character Education Program, according to Lissette Santiago, school psychologist who also helped coordinate the event. Educators and animals from the Town of Hempstead Shelter come in so that the students can practice citizenship. After career day the school runs a collection drive for food, blankets and pet supplies to give to the animals at the shelter.

Aside from tying the event into the curriculum, Lein stressed that strong community involvement not only makes this event a success, but adds to the success of the students.

“It is important for the community to be part of the school and the school to be part of the community,” she said. “This is the Archer family but we teach them that we are part of a bigger family, that of the community. Our goal is to give them the best education and the best future that we can.”

Freeport Public Schools is a diverse, innovative district on Long Island’s South Shore serving about 6,750 students in grades Pre-K through 12. The district and its eight schools take pride in having the region’s only magnet schools of choice, a longstanding and award-winning classroom English/Spanish Dual Language Program, and a high school where students excel in competitions that include the regional Academic Challenge, Odyssey of the Mind and Future Problem Solving International. The district’s New Visions School of Exploration and Discovery has been named a No Child left Behind Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education for its high student performance and engaging curriculum.