Going Digital
No Limits No Excuses is in the midst of significant work that’s engaging students for success beyond high school. We are creating a smartphone app that guides students as they make plans for education beyond high school. The app will aid them as they navigate the waters between high school and college, and help them decide what it is they want to do. The app is designed specially to appeal to high school juniors and seniors as well as college freshmen. This is when students need to give serious thought to their plans. We are working with AISD’s counselors to ensure that the app will help them engage students and improve college success.
NLNE has also made an exciting purchase of CoPilot software. In CoPilot’s database, through data shared by AISD, AC, WTAMU, and Cal Farley’s, we will be able to track a student from one institution to another. This will allow us to see that our NLNE student engagement events are leading to postsecondary success. The sharing of the data in CoPilot emphasizes one more way NLNE is collaborating to strengthen our community.
As we begin to engage students, we have to make decisions about what that looks like. We could plan career fairs and other events to engage students, but these events are often expensive and have only short-term effects. The Workforce Workgroup has come up with an idea modeled after the extremely popular Humans of New York social media campaign. We are calling it a virtual job shadow, or job fair. We will partner with large local employers who utilize a diverse workforce to introduce students to jobs available in Amarillo. This is exciting because it puts the emphasis on jobs and employers in Amarillo, but more importantly it engages students to see what occupational opportunities are available to them locally.
We are just winding down our FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) contest which has been a huge success. We are encouraged as we continue to engage students and work to eliminate barriers to postsecondary education in Amarillo, especially as graduation approaches for 2016 seniors.
by Broc Carter
