LaDashia McIntosh doesn’t know how to write a résumé. Not many 10th-graders do.
“I would like to go to college,” said LaDashia, a sophomore at Ramstein American High School in Germany. “I’ve [thought about] many majors that I wanted to do in college, but still haven’t picked a specific one.”
LaDashia is getting help by using MyRoad, an Internet program purchased in February by the Department of Defense Dependents Schools to help pupils look ahead.
MyRoad is for high school students looking ahead to going to college, joining the military or entering the work force. But the program is also being used by younger pupils who are deciding what classes to take in high school.
“We don’t expect kids that young to know what they’ll do for the rest of their lives,” said Cheryl Owen, a counselor at Aviano High School in Italy.
“But we want to start exposing them to different career fields, so when they’re in 11th and 12th grade they’ll know if they want to go to college or into the military, or into a two-year school or an apprenticeship.”
MyRoad has six main parts online:
Insights, an online magazine.“ID Me,” a pair of self-assessment tests.“Explore Majors,” descriptions written by college students of 67 different majors.“Find a college,” information on more than 3,500 two- and four-year schools, including locations, costs, entry requirements and majors.“Research Careers,” details on 63 career areas and 455 occupations.“My Plan,” an online portfolio, including information on making a resume and writing college applications.Every DODDS middle and high school has an account with MyRoad, and all their pupils, teachers and counselors have access.
Ashley Mead, a senior at Aviano, was in 11th grade when MyRoad was introduced there. She’d already decided that she was going to take marketing in college, and that she was probably going to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville.
But she used MyRoad to scout colleges anyway, in case she changed her mind about Florida.
“I looked at different tuitions, grade-point averages and [Scholastic Aptitude Test] scores the different colleges were looking for,” Mead said.
“I also used it to build my résumé when I was asking for letters of recommendation.”
While Ashley has already been accepted at Florida, searching through MyRoad put her in a New York state of mind.
“I became very fascinated with that,” she said. “Now I know I eventually want to go to New York, but not until after college.
“[MyRoad] just opens your mind to the realm of possibilities.”
At Ramstein, which has 1,000 students in grades nine through 12, the main goal so far has been getting everyone enrolled in MyRoad, according to counselor Janet Garn.
Most of the students, especially the younger ones, are not looking toward their future, she said.
“I think [MyRoad] helps to bring the reality that in a few years they’re going to be in the work force,” Garn said. “It’s important to make the connection between what they are doing now and what they will be doing in the real world.”
MyRoad, Owen said, helps students figure out what they’ll do later in life, even if “later in life” is just high school.
