Students in Mrs. Nelson’s Junior Achievement class have spent the last several weeks preparing for a mock interview. Students did a unit on career exploration and also learned about federal and state employment laws, developing job criteria, finding jobs, and the Equal Opportunity Employment laws. They then learned about applications, resumes and cover letters and created their own to prepare for an interview with local business owners and managers.
Students applied for jobs as caddies, nurse’s aides, farmhands, store clerks, bank tellers, and waiters/waitresses. On November 12, the students did mock interviews with Justin Clevenger, First Pioneer Bank; Jill Fiedler, Holyoke Marketplace; Adam Elliott Oscar, Mike Bastin, and Brooke Hansen, Ballyneal; and Krista Doble, Melissa Memorial Hospital.
The top students for each job vied to “get the job” by going through a second round set up as a panel interview with all six interviewers. Students placing top in their group and therefore qualifying for the final round included Ian Cure, Tenley Becker, Raia Sprague, Kyle Goldenstein, Lili Vasquez, and Sophia Gonzalez. The final winners, each receiving a prize of $50, was Lili Vasquez and Raia Sprague. Mrs. Nelson was extremely proud of her entire class being able to do what they did and do it well!
At the completion of the first round of interviews, all interviewers spent time talking to the classes, giving them suggestions for improvement and praising the positive things they saw throughout the interview process.
Additional students going through the interview process included Eva Schlachter, Brandon Lopez, Gail Ramirez, Sophia Martinez Daniel, Kianna Sanchez, David Vazquez, Levi Clayton, Katie Cure, Aubree Kammer, Hudson Lueth, Jozelyn Perez, Brailynn Rash, Christian Samaniego, and Cruse Weber.