Students explore their future

       Students at the Plains High

School got a chance to explore all kinds of career and college

opportunities at the “Know How 2 Go” event last Tuesday, Nov. 23.

The event was put on by the high school’a counselor, Betty Taylor,

and was intended as a way for students to be exposed to the

different choices they have when looking to the future.

“It’s just to help kids and actually

parents that participated in understanding the process of how to go

to college, and to look at different career options,” Taylor

said.

The event was organized like a regular

school day, with students rotating between their regular

classrooms. But instead of their regular teachers, students got a

chance to listen to professionals in different field and to

participate in demonstrations and experiments. In organizing the

event, Taylor wanted to make the event as engaging to the students

as possible.

“I asked them to prepare something with

as much hands-on as they could,” Taylor said. “So, the kids weren’t

going to be just listening all day long, they were going to up

doing and learning about that career or field of study.”

All in all, some 35 presenters were

involved in the event, speaking and demonstrating on topics ranging

from how to program robots to how to extract DNA from

strawberries.

Last year, students traveled to

Thompson Falls to attend the event they were holding at their

school. They had a grant from the Student Assistance Foundation and

they hosted it for schools in the area. This year, the Student

Assistance Foundation still supported the program with a grant, and

Thompson Falls was willing to share that grant with the Plains High

School so that an event could be held in Plains this year.

Several alumni of area high schools

returned as presenters at Tuesday’s event. Ryan Munson of Thompson

Falls returned as a graduate of Montana Tech to present to students

about robotics and engineering.

Munson got involved in the event after

receiving an e-mail informing alumni about the event.Munson jumped

at the opportunity to help out.

“They were looking for alumni of either

Plains or Thompson Falls to come to this event,” Munson said. “I

have done quite a bit of extra-curricular stuff, trying to give

back to the school.”

Munson graduated from Montana Tech in

2006 with his Bachelors degree and in 2008 with his Masters degree.

He is currently working with Northwestern Energy.

Munson particularly enjoyed the

opportunity to help.

“It’s kind of nice to give back to the

school that did so much for me,” Munson said.

Munson also had fun working with the

kids.

“It was enjoyable to see the reaction

of the students,” Munson said. “I led the kids program on robotics,

and seeing the reaction was really rewarding.”

J.C. Arnold, who is originally from

Paradise and graduated from Plains in 2008, also got the chance to

come back and teach a bit. Arnold was a part of a panel of

presenters from Montana Tech who discussed the advantages of taking

challenging classes in preparation for college.

Arnold experienced one advantage of

early preparation in a big way.

“Mostly I got some scholarships, a big

scholarship, to be a math major,” Arnold said.

Arnold was excited not only to work

with the students, but to see some familiar faces as well.

“It was really enjoyable getting to see

a lot of the old teachers from when I went to school here,” Arnold

said. “It was really nice to get a lot of good questions from the

students here. It was all around just enjoyable.”

Arnold hoped that the event got

students thinking about the next step, and wanted his presentation

to be as informative as possible.

“I hope at the very least it motivates

kids to look at college and consider college as something they can

do, not just something that may be unattainable to them now.”

The “Know How 2 Go” event also featured

several local professionals who presented on their various careers,

one of whom was Dr. Don Damschen, general surgeon at the Clark Fork

Valley Hospital.

Damschen also has connections with the

high school, which was part of the reason he was willing to

participate.

“I was a student here at Plains, so I

always try to help out as much as I can,” Damschen said. “I really

like trying to get kids motivated in health sciences.”

Damschen graduated in 1983, and

actually decided to go into the medical field a few years before

that., when he was about 15 years old.

Damschen cites early experiences as

inspirational in his desire to enter the medical profession.

“I decided on medicine through exposure

to healthcare, mostly through Boy Scouts and first aid,” Damschen

said. “I helped with the ambulance service when I was young. It was

all leading in that direction.”

Damschen spent my senior year one

period a day doing a work study at the hospital, which gave him th

opportunity to see various fields. Damschen hoped that his

presentation would provide Plains students with a similar

opportunity.

“I hope it just opened their minds to

other opportunities,” Damschen said. “For one, they could see that

a regular kid from Plains, Mont. can go on and be a physician if

they chose.”

Superintendent of the Plains High

School Thom Chisolm said that he was very impressed with how the

event turned out.

“Mrs. Taylor did an excellent job, and

followed up with what she’s doing [as a counselor],” Chisholm said.

“I can’t take any credit for it.”

Part of Mrs. Taylor’s role as a

counselor is to set up days and events that give students the

chance to recognize their opportunities. For the “Know How 2 Go”

event, there was little in the way of driving force from school

administration itself; rather, Taylor took it on as part of her

duties as counselor. Chisholm has seen the event as a positive and

effective way to keep students informed.

“As education is changing, we have

tried to make our students aware,” Chisholm said. “It’s not like 20

or 30 years ago, when you’re end-all result was just to try to

graduate from high school. Now it’s to try to prepare you in

advance for the changes that are going to come.”

Chisholm recognizes that not

necessarily all students are bound for college, but those that are

need to start preparing for it now, and those who are ready to head

to a vocational or technical institute, the Armed Forces, or right

into the work force, they still need skills. “We’re just trying to

prepare them so they’re ready to take that next step,” Chisholm

said.

In seeing Taylor work on this event and

put things together, Chisholm has witnessed a method to her

madness.

“She’s very clever. She employs the

universities, local people that support the school, potential

employers out there, the banks, the various companies,” Chisholm

said. “She’s putting everyone who needs to be in contact with each

other in the same area and is letting them do their thing.”

Overall, Chisholm saw the event as an

engaging, positive opportunity for students to explore what they

might want to pursue as a career or as a field of study.

“Here it gives students a chance to

look at the different avenues and if it is something they want,

they can get started on advanced explorations of that, if they find

out it’s not something they want, they still have time to switch

their designs and prepare for another career,” Chisholm said.

Taylor’s goal throughout the whole

event was to give students the chance to discuss their future with

people who have been through it successfully.

“So often, students don’t actually get

a chance to visit with people in a variety of occupations,” Taylor

said, “so that was really the goal with this, to expand their

horizons somewhat.”

According to Taylor, the event ended up

with a lot more local speakers than was initially intended, but she

saw that as a positive aspect of being able to plan the event with

the Plains High School in mind.

“I was so grateful that 35

professionals took an entire day to share with our students the

how, the why, the end result of pursuing their future,” Taylor

said. “That’s great stuff.”

All in all, Taylor was greatly

impressed with the level of support she received from members of

the community in putting this event on.

“I’m so grateful that we have people in

our community that are so supportive of our youth,” Taylor said,

“because that’s an opportunity that just doesn’t happen every day.”