career research activities for high school students

9 Career Exploration Activities High Schoolers Will Actually Want To Do

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Career Exploration Activities High Schoolers Will Actually Want To Do

Great college counselors and career advisors always strive to ensure that each student is able to develop a personalized roadmap for their future. Beyond creating a bridge between secondary school and postsecondary success, career exploration plays a critical role for students while in school and provides thoughtful reflection and self-examination as students choose their life path. High-quality career exploration helps give meaning to the learning students are doing while in school, provides focus for their decision-making and time, and inspires hope for where their learning and hard work can take them. 

Many schools and districts offer students annual or semi-annual career days and fairs as a primary channel for career exploration. Often times these events highlight individuals in the most common career roles or representatives from local businesses and business community organizations with brand recognition. Though these assemblies are important, they do not, on their own, impactfuly engage students in an ongoing process of deeper exploration necessary to drive meaningful questioning, engagement, and speculative research throughout secondary school.  

Because of the important role it plays, career exploration must be ongoing and interesting to students in order to effectively engage them and promote motivation and enthusiasm. Counselors and educators can play a key role in finding ways to embed innovative practices to help students explore possible careers, learn about a much broader set of potential career options, and receive sufficient time and guidance--all allowing students to deeply consider their postsecondary career paths.

Innovative, Engaging Activities And Practices

In order for career exploration activities to be meaningful and exciting to today’s high school students, they need to be interactive and relevant. They must involve opportunities for student voice and choice, allowing students to explore and discern what appeals to them and what does not. And, in order to work within a college and career readiness program, the activities need to be scalable and accessible for all students. 

Use Technology to Connect Students with Career Role Models

Today’s students are all 21st Century natives. They learned to read with books and apps. Video calls are just as common as telephone calls. They are used to using digital devices to connect with people near and far. Technology has made it much easier to connect students to information and resources beyond the school walls and get them excited about future career possibilities. Encourage students to explore websites that connect them with first-hand insights of professionals from around the world. 

• Career Village : This online community provides a forum for students to ask questions about career exploration and planning directly to current professionals. From “How much does a music producer earn?” to “How to find your dream job,” students are able to have their specific questions answered from real-life professionals working in the fields they are exploring.
• Job Shadow : At Job Shadow, students can read interviews from professionals working in a vast number of fields, including some more unique professions that might be of interest to students such as jobs in the arts, roles that involve work with animals, and “jobs you may not have heard of.” Students can also search for interviews based on compensation structure or work environment. 

Use Virtual Reality to Explore Career Options 

Hands-on, interactive, and dynamic experiences are important to engage students and give them a realistic window into what a career will entail. Some of the most innovative work in career exploration is utilizing virtual reality (VR) to provide immersive experiences for students to do jobs. Though internships, apprenticeships, and other immersive, real-world experiences are only possible for a small number of students, VR can provide access to the environments, tools, and opportunities in a wide variety of industries without leaving the classroom. 

• Oculus VR Career Experience : This free resource designed for the Oculus Go platform, the most popular consumer VR headset, provides students with the opportunity to learn the complex world of pipe fitting, HVAC, and welding. The application was designed by the International Training Fund of the United Association, an international union of plumbers, fitters, and technicians, to provide students with an immersive and realistic window into these jobs.
• ByteSpeed : ByteSpeed, available for a fee, provides students ranging from elementary school to higher education a wide variety of career VR experiences including agriculture, fashion design, health care, and engineering.

Partner with Local Chambers of Commerce and Beyond

A core piece of career planning needs to include job opportunities within one’s community. A local chamber of commerce is the perfect resource. Encourage the local chamber of commerce to have member businesses create YouTube videos spotlighting their work and different types of potential jobs for students. Some local business organizations have partnered with school districts to create sites geared specifically toward secondary students to share the types of jobs available and the skills needed to do those roles. You might also invite local businesses to provide teachers with recruitment, application, and training materials for students. 

• Career Explore NW : A school district in Spokane, Washington has partnered with local businesses and the public broadcasting station to create an impressive web platform that enables career exploration, promotes local agriculture and industry opportunities, and connects local businesses with students.  
• UpSkill Houston : In Houston, Texas, the Greater Houston Partnership has brought the school district into the workforce development process. Realizing that economic development requires a skill-ready workforce at hand, rather than importing it from other communities, the organization formed this partnership and site aimed at connecting high school students with relevant careers.   
• SchooLinks : SchooLinks provides an Industry Partnership Portal which assists schools and districts in nurturing partnerships. Providing student access, calendaring events, and empowering local businesses to connect to students helps create real-world opportunities for students to explore local career options.  

Include A Diversity of Voices

Students are more likely to deeply engage with career exploration activities when they can personally relate to or see themselves in career role models. It is vital that schools offer students exposure to a wide diversity of individuals representing possible career pathways. Expanding conceptions of role models for students both opens the minds of current students and works to upend historical stereotypes and barriers long-term. 

• Invite Recent Alumni: Consider offering students opportunities to talk with and learn from individuals still early in their career trajectory, rather than just focusing on those who have achieved long-term career success. You might invite recent alumni to talk with students about their experiences both in college or career training, applying for positions, and during their first weeks and months in a new role. This gives students much more relatable information and advice that likely feels more relevant to their current decision-making and thinking.
• Ensure Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Diversity in Role Models : Across fields, take special care to include representatives that fall outside often held gender stereotypes for particular careers. For instance, spotlight women working in positions from predominantly male STEM careers. And, have male representation from nursing or teaching positions, which are often female-dominated careers. The Career Girls website is a great resource geared at female students to provide them with empowering role models and tools to explore future career options. Ensure racial and ethnic diversity in connecting students with professionals as it is fundamental that all students have role models that they can personally identify with.

Honor And Value A Wide Array Of Career Pathways

Engaging career exploration also includes guidance and activities to help students expand their thinking beyond what they conceive of as likely career paths. Many times student career planning and exploration is constrained by what they know--either what their own family members do for a living, professionals they interact with in their own lives such as teachers, doctors, and coaches, or those they see on television and the internet. This leaves major gaps in student understanding of all the potential opportunities and fields that exist. Educators can have major impacts on postsecondary success by showing students the wide array of options that are possible and connecting those options with student strengths and preferences. 

Additionally, many career exploration curricula often default to college planning as a core component. However, in today’s economy, there are a myriad of good job options that do not require a four-year college degree. It does a disservice to students to only focus on career paths that extend from college completion. Career counselors can play an important role in helping students to see these different pathways--from straight to career, to technical education, to the military, to community college, to four-year degrees and beyond--as all potentially worthwhile to consider. This makes career planning and exploration accessible to students who do not think that college is right for them and helps all students understand their options as they make important life decisions.

Relevant And Productive Career Exploration For All Students

As you develop and plan your career exploration activities, take time to regularly survey students for fields they would like to explore, the kinds of activities that resonate with them, and for feedback on past activities and events. By aligning career exploration activities with student interest and choice, it is much more likely that students will engage more deeply and reflectively. 

When students do this, they are able to see connections between future career goals and their current learning; they are able to figure out the kinds of work they enjoy and those they do not; and, they are able to understand how their strengths and preferences map onto future possibilities. By deeply exploring career possibilities during secondary school and critically thinking about the associated realities, students are able to enter postsecondary life knowing they are making active and well-informed choices. Ultimately, if students are excited about these activities and thoughtfully engage with them, they are better prepared for the entire pathway to a career.

Centralizing career exploration activities in the same place as goal setting, college exploration and graduation plans can help students see the little, and big pictures. Check out how SchooLinks can consolidate it all for your district.

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10+ Fun Career Exploration Activities: Broadening Horizons and Inspiring Futures

August 30th, 2023

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Fun career exploration activities can shape a fulfilling journey for high school students beyond graduation. Engaging in these activities helps students identify their interests and passions, promote skill development, and ultimately lead to a more fulfilling career choice.

Activity 1: Career Scavenger Hunt

Organizing a career scavenger hunt is a good way to spark curiosity in students and sharpen their research skills. The activity involves giving students a list of career-related tasks and allowing them to learn as much as possible about the topics.

This interactive activity encourages students to explore various professions through research. In doing this, students can easily identify and better understand their interests and aspirations.

Counselors or career development coordinators can assign a number of career scavenger hunt tasks, such as:

Finding the steps to become a registered nurse and the roles of the profession.

Identifying the essential skills and certifications required to become a cybersecurity expert.

Discovering what a financial analyst does and the industries they can work in.

Activity 2: Job Shadowing Adventures

Job shadowing is one of the most hands-on fun career exploration activities where students observe professionals in their workplace. The activity allows students to gain firsthand insights into daily tasks, work culture, and challenges of various professions. In addition, it teaches important work-related skills like adaptability, problem-solving, and professional etiquette.

To organize this career activity, counselors can contact local businesses or professionals in various industries for possible job shadowing opportunities.

Paige Mueller’s story on Jobs for America’s Graduates, Kansas (JAG-K) is a shining example of one program where many high school students discover their passion through job shadowing experiences.

Activity 3: Mock Interview Extravaganza

Mock interviews allow students to get a feel of real job interviews. The activity helps reduce the fear of going on real job interviews in the future.

Here are three important tips for conducting mock interviews.

To make the experience feel more authentic for students, set the atmosphere to mimic a real interview setting.

Provide students with a list of generic questions relevant to the roles they want to explore.

Remember to let students rotate roles, taking turns as interviewer and interviewee.

Providing constructive feedback to students about their performances during mock interviews can boost their confidence and help them understand their strengths and weaknesses. It also prepares them for future real-world job interviews.

Activity 4: Passion Project Showcase

Not all fun career exploration activities have specific academic requirements. For example, passion projects are personal undertakings driven by students’ interests. These projects promote creativity and self-expression, allowing students to explore their aptitudes and career interests.

Typically, passion projects involve:

Getting students to reflect on their hobbies

Finding potential career paths that align with those hobbies

Gathering information and creating projects in that field

Sharing the project with professionals in the field to get feedback and guidance

Starting a school garden, developing a mobile app, and launching a recycling program are just a few passion project ideas for high school students.

Activity 5: Career Role-Play

Career role-play is an interactive activity that gives students a chance to assume the roles of professionals and participate in mock scenarios of real workplace situations. Through career role-play , students get to understand the ins and outs of various professions by stepping into the shoes of different professionals.

This career exploration activity can motivate students to pursue potential careers more passionately. To play this immersive game: Select various professions and provide detailed scripts explaining their roles. Allow students to choose their preferred professions and let them act out the roles using materials and props.

Activity 6: Career Trivia

Students engaged in career trivia activities start with a wide range of information about various professions. The fun activity involves asking questions and awarding points for correct answers. As they answer questions, students will naturally assess their strengths, helping them to develop genuine interests in their career preferences.

To conduct a career trivia exercise:

Prepare a set of career-related quizzes covering a wide range of job roles.

Organize students into small groups (to encourage collaboration) and conduct the trivia.

Discuss the answers after the trivia and provide more insights about the careers covered.

Activity 7: Career Speed Networking

Career speed networking is another interactive way for students to learn about potential career interests. Typically, the activity involves brief one-on-one conversations with various professionals to help students gain insight into different industries.

To facilitate this activity, coordinators can invite alumni, local businesses, and professionals in various industries to speak with students. Set fixed time intervals for each session and ensure students rotate between professionals.

It is usually helpful to encourage students to ask questions and share what they learned with the class at the end of the event.

Activity 8: Skills Workshop Showdown

Skills workshops are a good way to help students identify transferable skills. This fun activity allows students to explore different career paths, increasing their chances of becoming valuable assets in the job market.

These workshops typically involve role-playing, group activities, and problem-solving exercises. Each interactive element provides an immersive experience for students, allowing them to practice their skills in real-world settings.

Besides boosting students’ confidence and helping them understand their capabilities, workshops offer several other benefits , including encouraging discussions, providing new perspectives, and networking opportunities.

Activity 9: Industry Investigation Game Show

Designed to equip students with relevant information about different careers, the Industry Investigation Game show involves students answering questions related to various workplace scenarios, professions, and industries.

To organize the game show, coordinators craft thought-provoking questions covering a wide range of job roles, qualifications, and industry trends. It is okay to include fun facts to make the game more exciting.

Students experience the thrill and excitement of answering career-related questions while learning about different professions. Through competitive and fun interactions, students build their career knowledge in an enjoyable way.

Activity 10: Career Vision Board Party

High school counselors can help students set goals for future career paths by organizing a career vision board party. Besides unleashing their creativity, creating a vision board can encourage students to give their futures some serious thought and motivate them to work toward their dreams.

To organize a career vision party:

Choose a venue for the party

Let students gather the materials (magazines cutouts, poster boards, glue)

Explain what vision boards are, how they work, and their significance in career goal setting

Allow students to create, share, and celebrate each other’s visions

Although many students may not lock in their specific career choices while in high school, engaging in these fun career exploration activities can help shape the general direction of their futures.

Creating opportunities for students to explore these activities will allow them to gain insight into their passions and set the course for a fulfilling professional path beyond high school.

However, working with high school students around career development and ensuring they are on track to graduate can be time-consuming and demanding. Thankfully, counselors can leverage educational tools like Pathways to automate their workflow and allow more time to explore student career options.

If your school is interested in new ways to improve the learning experience for children, you may also be interested in automating tasks and streamlining processes so that your teachers have more time to teach.

Education Advanced offers a large suite of tools that may be able to help. For example, our most popular and effective tools are:

Cardonex, our master schedule software , helps schools save time on building master schedules. Many schools used to spend weeks using whiteboards to organize the right students, teachers, and classrooms into the right order so that students could graduate on time and get their preferred classes. However, Cardonex can now be used to automate this task and deliver 90% of students' first-choice classes within a couple of days.

Testhound, our test accommodation software , helps schools coordinate thousands of students across all state and local K-12 school assessments while taking into account dozens of accommodations (reading disabilities, physical disabilities, translations, etc.) for students.

Pathways, our college and career readiness software , helps administrators and counselors create, track, and analyze graduation pathways to ensure secondary students are on track to graduate.

Evaluation, our teacher evaluation software , documents every step of the staff evaluation process, including walk-throughs, self-evaluations, supporting evidence, reporting, and performance analytics.

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Career Exploration Activities: A Comprehensive Guide for High School Students

By Tom Gurin

Fulbright Scholar; music composer, historian, and educator

By Surya Ramanathan

Johns Hopkins University, B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics, B.S. in Economics, and M.S. in Applied Economics

6 minute read

The journey of self-discovery and career exploration can be both exciting and daunting. Luckily, there are numerous ways you can uncover your passions and interests

Career exploration is a helpful way for students to consider their interests and goals, and to focus their energies in the right direction. Here, we’ll delve into nine effective career exploration activities you could do to help figure out a potential career path to pursue.

Why Are Career Exploration Activities Important For Students?

Although some people might be lucky enough to find their ideal careers by accident, for most, identifying the right fit means taking time to plan and reflect. Even if you change your mind or go in a different direction later on, exploring careers now might help you uncover something important about your goals for your professional life.

Maybe you already have an idea (or several) about what you want your career to look like. That’s great! The exploration you do as a student could help you narrow in on your strongest interests or open your eyes to career paths you never knew existed . For students who want to be productive and efficient with their time and studies, exploring career options is an important step for building a direct link between their education and their futures.

How Do Career Exploration Activities Work?

Career exploration activities should be enjoyable! They can take many forms, including brainstorming sessions, games, and conversations with experts in a field.

Check out our Pathfinders career discovery program to match with experts and get personalized guidance and advice.

These activities require students to reflect on their goals, values, and skills. For some students, this might be the first time that you consider questions about your future career. To help get the conversation going, try out some fun career exploration activities that can help students find what they love .

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9 Career Exploration Activities for Students

1. career mind mapping: visualizing your connections.

Building a career mind map is an excellent first activity for students to draw connections among key interests and goals. Once completed, a mind map is a tool for visualizing connections among concepts that are important to you and that could shape your career path. Here’s how it works:

Grab a large piece of paper (so that you aren’t limited in space) and a pen or pencil. (A diagramming software like Google Drawings will also work.)

In the center of the page, write a word or short phrase that is important to you when you think about your future career. Don’t think too hard about what to write; just jot down what comes to mind (e.g., “Helping people”, “Leadership”, “Exploring”, “Science”).

Next, draw one or two (or several) lines extending outward from what you wrote. At the end of each line, write another word or phrase that is connected to the first concept. Each word or phrase should connect to another, and your priorities.

Continue drawing lines and connections to new concepts, building outward from the center to create a tree of interrelated ideas that you want to prioritize when building your career.

Building a career mind map is a great first activity to help you structure your brainstorming and get started with career exploration . Remember: the goal of this activity is to start thinking about the connections among different concepts that you want to explore.

2. Self-Assessment Surveys: Uncover Your Strengths and Interests 

To embark on a journey of self-discovery, it’s important to understand your strengths and interests. There are various online self-assessment surveys and quizzes designed specifically for high school students. These assessments can be extremely helpful in assisting you with identifying your personality traits, strengths, and preferences. Websites like CareerExplorer , Princeton Review , and InternMart provide comprehensive assessments that match your qualities with suitable careers. By taking these surveys, you can get a better idea of the fields that might resonate most with you. Here are some career quiz questions to get you thinking about your choices right now:

Which subject(s) do you enjoy most in school?

What are your goals for your education?

Picture yourself in your ideal future workspace. Where do you find yourself? In an office? In a lab? In a forest?

What is your work style? For example, do you like to organize and plan well in advance? Do you like to multitask? Do you look for ways to be creative?

Assuming equal pay, would you rather be a journalist or a plant biologist? Would you rather build bridges or be a librarian?

Do you prefer to work on your own or to collaborate with other people?

3. Informational Interviews: Gain Insights from Professionals 

Sometimes, the best way for students to learn about a career path is by talking to someone who’s already in the field. Reach out to professionals in careers that interest you through a platform like LinkedIn and request to speak with them for 15-30 minutes. This is an excellent opportunity to ask questions about their job, daily tasks, and what they enjoy most about their work. If there is an expert in your school or local community, try asking them some of these questions:

When did you discover that you wanted to specialize in this field?

Have you had any surprises in your career path?

How is the work/life balance in this field?

What is the most challenging aspect of your work?

These conversations can provide you with valuable insights that go beyond what you might find in a job description, helping you understand the nuances of different careers. 

4. Job Shadowing: Experience a Day in the Life 

If you’re curious about a particular profession, a job shadowing experience may be beneficial. Spend a day observing a professional in action and get a firsthand look at their tasks and responsibilities. This experience will not only give you a realistic sense of what a typical day looks like but will also very likely impress the person you are shadowing by showing incentive, creating a potential job opportunity. It can also help you assess whether the day-to-day activities align with your interests and aspirations.

5. Volunteering and Internships: Hands-On Experience 

Volunteering and internships offer a hands-on approach to career exploration. Look for opportunities in fields that intrigue you, even if they’re unpaid or short-term. Whether it’s volunteering at a local hospital, interning at a marketing agency, or assisting at an animal shelter, these experiences provide valuable insights into the practical aspects of different professions. You’ll gain real-world skills, build your resume, and get an idea of what it’s like to work in that industry. 

6. High School Clubs and Organizations: Try Something New 

Your high school likely offers a variety of clubs that can introduce you to different fields of interest. Join clubs related to science, art, debating, coding, or any other subjects that intrigue you. The best part? You’re taking on minimal risk: you won’t be dedicating years, and if you’re uninterested in one area, you can easily switch to another club to try something new. Engaging in extracurricular activities not only helps you explore your passions but also allows you to meet like-minded peers and mentors who can guide you on your journey.

7. Online Courses and Workshops: Expand Your Knowledge 

The internet is a goldmine of resources for learning about different careers. Enroll in online courses or workshops related to fields you’re curious about. 

Polygence Pods, for example, are 6-week programs specifically designed for high school students to work with mentors and a small peer group on research about a specific interest. Pods cohorts are offered throughout the year in a variety of topics. The Polygence Pods program page is the best way to learn about specific dates and topics for upcoming Pods. Space is limited, so reserve your spot early if you’re interested in joining.

Other websites like Coursera , edX , and Khan Academy offer a wide range of courses on diverse topics. These courses can provide you with a foundational understanding of different industries and help you decide which one resonates with you the most.

8. Research Projects: Dive Deep into Topics of Interest 

Undertaking research projects can be an exciting way to explore potential careers. If you’re passionate about a specific subject, consider delving deeper into it through independent research through a university, or even a company like Polygence.

Middle and high school students who enroll in Polygence’s Core research mentorship program work a research project of their choosing with a mentor who has expertise in the project’s subject matter. Each student’s Polygence experience is uniquely designed and student-led. Teens who have completed projects with Polygence have indicated their research helped them discover a deep passion for specific fields of study. Lily Nguyen’s Polygence experience led her to choose a college major at UC Berkeley. In Lily’s words, Polygence:

“definitely made me more interested in biology and science. Before my senior year, I didn't really take any biology classes yet. But when I was going through the project, I found that I really enjoyed learning about this kind of stuff. It really helped cement for me that yes, biology is a good major for me to pursue.”

Whether it’s writing a paper, creating a presentation, or conducting experiments, this hands-on experience can reveal new aspects of a field and ignite your curiosity even further.

Do your own research through polygence

Polygence pairs you with an expert mentor in your area of passion. Together, you work to create a high quality research project that is uniquely your own.

9. Attend Career Fairs and Workshops: Network and Learn 

Many schools and communities organize career fairs and workshops that bring together professionals from various industries. These events offer students a chance to network, ask questions, and gain insights directly from experts. Make the most of these opportunities by attending talks, participating in workshops, and connecting with professionals who share your interests. 

Choose Your Unique Career Exploration Journey

This is by no means an exhaustive list of ideas when it comes to the ways students can explore careers. There are many routes you could take to explore a career path that is of potential interest to you, but this list is a great way to get started. 

Polygence is also here to help! Our Pathfinders program is a career discovery program specifically designed to help students find what they love . We’ll match you with three different expert research mentors in fields of your choice. In addition to learning about each field, you’ll get answers to your specific questions and direct, personalized advice from your mentors to help guide you through your career discovery journey.

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• 14 Career Exploration Games for High School Students: MUST-Read for Middle and High Schoolers!
• Impressive Teens Team
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• November 20, 2022

Middle school students and high schoolers often think about what they want to be when they graduate and get out into the real world , but for many of them, it can be difficult to figure out what their best career path is with so many subject areas and such a wide variety of jobs. Fortunately, in today’s technologically advanced world, there are resources they can utilize to help them, and many of the resources are in the form of interactive games, career pathways quizzes, or fun career exploration activities. In fact, teens can often go online and find these career exploration tools and activities, and below are 14 career exploration games for high school students that you may want to look at yourself.

• Career Card Grab Game

This is similar to the well-known game called Fishbowl, and it is fit for students at every grade level (as young as elementary students) to gain exposure to various career fields and identify the best options for their future success based on their natural skills and interests. Career Card Grab has descriptions of 54 careers across the labor market, as well as the ability to add six more of your own. The kids split into two teams and participate in three different fun career activities. The first involves looking at the cards and describing each career with both words and actions. The second involves acting out the job title without using any words, and the third involves using only one word to describe the career, which is easy because by that time, they’re pretty familiar with it.

The most interesting thing about the career bingo game is that it highlights some very unique and unusual jobs and obscure career opportunities that many student players might not have thought of at that point. These include coroner, genetic counselor, and many others. It is truly a very unique (and helpful) career exploration game for young people.

This site requires a small fee, but it accommodates teens of all ages and even adults who are looking for the perfect career paths. It is a little unique because the site contains tons of apps that use virtual reality (VR) to make them extremely realistic. Even better, many of the apps are completely free, and the areas that explore include the moon landing, well-known tourist attractions such as Hoover Dam and the Anne Frank house, and even apps describing Pearl Harbor, Mount Everest, and locations all around the world.

When it comes to career exploration, each app and digital game on this site offers an educational but fun activity to teach teens all about a particular occasion, location, or job experienced by real-life professionals. It can also become a little addictive thanks to its VR capability, so this is definitely a fun way to facilitate the process of career exploration for students who like apps and video games.

• Skills Matcher by Career One-Stop

With this game, there are a total of 40 workplace skills, and for each one, the student can choose either the beginner, basic, skilled, advanced, or expert level. At the end of the game, the site matches them with either jobs they’d be good at or jobs they’d like to be good at, so it’s a very versatile game in the end. When it comes to the importance of career exploration, this game is a good one because it gives teens possibilities for jobs they’re merely interested in, even if they have no experience in them, thus opening their eyes to uncovered options. 

Further, this game actually assesses the student’s career readiness and specific skills (applied to a variety of careers) to identify which best-fit options of interest may provide the most meaningful career. Therefore, this game doesn’t just expose students to career research, but rather demonstrates different ways their current skills, talents, or interests could be applied to diverse career plans, helping guide the student to a fulfilling future job and encouraging them to further explore the essential skills it requires. This site also gives you information on different jobs and even has resources for different groups of people, such as ex-military persons and those over the age of 55, to name a few, so it really covers the world of work in a robust and unbiased way.

• Road Trip Nation

This game is a bit different than the others because it helps players go on a virtual road trip in order to explore different careers to eventually find their dream job, which is arguably one of the most important factors in choosing which extracurricular activities to engage in, which role models to look after, and which technical skills to amass through middle school, high school, and post-secondary education en route to a student’s first real job. To get started, they simply click on “Start Your Roadmap,” and it brings them to three different questions they have to answer. Afterwards, they get sent to another page that provides them with actual job ideas, including the current trend on that job (growing, not growing, etc.).

The game also provides a list of “leaders” and “majors,” which describe exactly what some of these people did in different scenarios to get into their particular career field. Included are some of the milestones that they accomplished to get the job they’re doing today.

• Mapping Your Future

One of the things that makes this game a little different is that the jobs are listed in career clusters, which means, for example, that if you are interested in something in healthcare but you’re not sure of the exact job that will suit you best, you can explore a variety of healthcare professions to determine which one is right for you. In these days of the gig economy – an economy highlighted by short-term, freelance, and contract jobs – it’s good to explore jobs that have a better track record when it comes to longevity and a more predictable job outlook, which this game does.

Some of the options included in the Mapping Your Future game include Match My Career Interests, Visit the Featured Career, and a Career Search feature. It is a fun and productive game that teens, especially older teens, will get a lot out of in the end to help them answer the age-old question “What do I want to be when I grow up?”.

• Career Building Blocks

Created by a teacher and featured on the teachers pay teachers online marketplace, this is just one of many teacher-created easy-to-use career awareness activities games that’s structured with step-by-step directions that work great for friends and families at home or at career days in the classroom. The game is similar to Jenga, but themed around career choices. You can either buy the game from the online marketplace or (if you’re a parent or teacher) make one yourself, using a cheap game at a second-hand store and taping pieces of paper on the blocks with sayings on them. These sayings can include, “what is your career goal?,” “name a career that someone in your household has,” “how do you plan on determining what you want to do for a living after you graduate?,” and anything else you can think of that will make the players think about their careers.

Not only is this game a great way to think of some creative ideas when it comes to future professions, but it’s a game that is exciting, loud, and of course, a lot of fun. The kids won’t even realize they’re doing something educational, so it’s the perfect career game for tweens and teens. In fact, if you’re looking for other similar teacher-created, printable, or make-them-yourself career development games, you may want to peruse the vast listings across the teachers pay teachers platform, as they have no shortage of creative, stimulating, educational games that have probably never graced your school district.

• Career Quiz by Princeton Review

While you don’t typically think of Princeton Review as a provider of games, their career quiz is a great game-like free resource that makes planning students’ futures and lives fun and inspiring. The career goals quiz begins with a set of 24 questions, and each set gives the student two possibilities. With each set of questions, students choose the answer that best suits what they want out of life, from time freedom to financial preferences. Once they complete the questions, they receive a color-coded description that helps students decide what to do with the rest of their lives, which is a great resource custom-tailored to that student’s ideal future. Your style and interests are broken down into four areas: red, which stands for expediting; green, which symbolizes communication; blue, which stands for planning; and yellow, which symbolizes administration.

These four colors help students determine what they’re best at and what careers might work best for them. Even better, accessing the test (and your results) are absolutely free, and since it comes from the Princeton Review, you know you can likely trust the results, so it’s a great place for teens to start.

• Education.com Online Career Test

There are 35 tests on this website, and they test things such as life skills and critical thinking to find something you are likely to love doing for a living. The site is unique because it specifically tests for a wide variety of areas such as financial, environmental, service-minded, technical, nursing, cultural, communications, and artistic. It essentially steers teens to the careers it thinks will work out best for the users, but it’s all based on the inputs they provide (which generate the best-fit results of the test).

One of the things a lot of users like best about the test is that they can get their results right there on the screen as soon as the test is done. There’s no clicking on additional tabs and no waiting for the site to send the results to their email. It is fast and simple every time. Furthermore, it might broaden a student’s career exploration process by suggestion a profession they hadn’t previously considered; for example, a service-minded student might be matched up with a health care profession, even if they never considered pursuing a medical degree.

• Career Village

For students with a nagging curiosity who want the nitty gritty truth behind hard-to-ask questions or little-discussed taboo topics (like salaries or bonuses), Career Village is a great option that invites them behind the curtain and sheds light on the highs, lows, and secrets of diverse jobs, divulged by real professionals. Simply put, Career Village is a forum that allows teens to ask questions that go directly to adults already working in that particular area. They can find out how much a particular professional makes, what’s the best way to enter the field, and what the average daily workday is like for that professional. Since they are asking the questions of real professionals, they’ll get honest answers that they can learn from and which can help them decide if that job is right for them.

The Q&As are divided into unanswered questions, newest questions, and all questions that are still being utilized. It is also a good site if you’re an experienced professional and you’d like to share your expertise with others.

Though this one isn’t exactly a game or a quiz, it is a great informative and intriguing website populated by real-life interviews with professionals in lots of different fields. These are people actually working in these professions, so the teen can learn first-hand what it’s like to be in that particular career. There are hundreds of available interviews in hundreds of professions, and students can even search for certain interviews using criteria like jobs that pay a certain amount of money or jobs that allow people to work in certain environments. In other words, it’s a way for teens to get the answers to job-related questions they’re too afraid or shy to ask.

One of the things that makes this resource so unique is that there are a lot of jobs that people have never heard of because they are so unique. If a teenager doesn’t want to do “whatever everyone else is doing,” they can find lots of jobs that are very unique and at times, even a little unusual.

• Career Girls Career Quiz

While it’s a sad fact, even today, many career-related quizzes are somewhat gendered or geared towards boys, which can make it harder for female high school students to be aware of the breadth of options available, especially considering the growing number of STEM-related job opportunities and the underrepresented female talent pool. That’s why the quiz created by Career Girls is different, as it consists of a total of 35 characteristics that, if you’re interested in them, you can put a check by them on the list. With these characteristics, which are essentially personality traits, the test gives you a list of careers that you are very likely to be good at, whether it’s a social worker or fitness trainer, or anything in between – and it includes today’s modern and technologically advanced and evolving employment opportunities.

After checking off traits they know apply to them, students get a list of potential good fit careers, so they aren’t boxed into one or just a few opportunities, but rather shown the gamut that fit their traits, skills, interests, and strengths. 

• Day in the Life by Vault

With Day in the Life, it’s easy for teens to get practical information on the careers they’re interested in learning about. It’s mostly in written form, but it’s written by people who are working in these fields and therefore, teens get practical and realistic information that they can count on being reliable. Some of the career areas include law, consulting, financial services, internships, technology, and numerous others. There are also different blogs on tons of topics that help you learn even more about your potential career choice.

There are also guides that help with getting a job, improving your resume , professional development, and even information on going to graduate school. Regardless of what you need to improve your chances of being successful at your career of choice, as well as what you need to figure out what you’d like to do, you can find it at this website.

• O*Net Interest Profiler

This site allows you to enter answers that they will match with a certain career choice. There are 60 questions total, and for each of them, you get a total of five choices, ranging from Strongly Like to Strongly Dislike. There are no right or wrong answers because you’re just describing yourself and what you like or dislike to do. Once you finish all of the questions, the site gives you some suggestions of jobs that you might enjoy doing for a living.

The test is based on six different areas, known as RIASEC, which stands for realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. The questions are not difficult, and you can feel free to answer them any way you like without the fear of judgment.

• Department of Labor Employment Websites

This isn’t a game or interactive website, but it has tons of information not only on each state’s Department of Labor services, but information such as the minimum wage in that state, how to apply for unemployment benefits, OSHA offices and locations, district offices for mine safety, and all of the services available to veterans. It is a one-stop shopping opportunity to learn anything related to working and getting a job in that state.

Forall things job- and career-related, the Department of Labor can provide you with the information you need, and their website gives you links to all of the resources you need to get started. 

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Career Research Projects for High School Students

Immersive projects are a great teaching tool to get students excited about a potential career path.

As a teacher or homeschooler of high school students, you know the importance of in-depth, hands-on instruction. The more your students see how to apply their career planning and exploration skills, the better. Check out these career research projects for high school students that you can use in your classroom immediately! You can head to our careers curriculum center for lesson plans and more materials you can use as well.

Career Research Projects – Essays and Written Products

Sometimes, the best approach is the simplest. These projects require students to research and type up essays or written reports.

• Career Research and Readiness Project: In this project , students take a personality assessment to see what kinds of careers they may enjoy. They research the job application and interview process, narrow their search to a few career choices, and then set SMART goals to help them achieve their dreams. 
• Career Research Project Paper: Students will like this project’s   simple, straightforward instructions and layout. The components are broken into manageable chunks, letting your high schoolers tackle the project in parts. By the end, they will produce a well-researched essay highlighting their career. 
• 3-Career Research Report: In this project , students choose three careers to focus on and create a written report. They learn MLA documentation, write business letters to organizations, take notes, and go through the formal writing process. This project has everything your students need to develop their career research reports with a rubric, parent letter, works cited page instructions, and more.
• STEM Careers Research Poster and Brochure: Students conduct comprehensive research in this project , using what they learn to create several items showing their knowledge. They research and learn about a specific career and make a posterboard presentation. Then they can create a brochure, present their findings to the class, and answer any questions that classmates and others may ask.
• Job Research Project: In this project , students first do research on any career they want. They must look up the various requirements, necessary skills, salary, and other details about the profession. They end with a thorough essay about their career, hopefully armed with the knowledge to help them in the future. The project is customizable to adapt to multiple grades, so your high school students will all benefit from the project. 

Career Research Projects – Digital Presentations

Fusing technology and research, these projects allow kids to show their knowledge through technology. Students create digital presentations and share them with the class using PowerPoint, Google Slides, and other formats.

• Career Research Project: This project works with many grades, and teachers can customize it to fit their students’ levels. They use PowerPoint to make a comprehensive slide show to demonstrate their knowledge. It breaks down career research into ten slides (you can add more as needed), and students will have a solid understanding of their future career path by the end of the assignment. 
• Career Presentation Project: In this project , high schoolers need to research career clusters, narrow their choices down to only one profession, and find many details about it. They look up median salary, entry-level pay, education requirements, required skills, and any additional benefits or perks that would attract potential applicants. They put all this information into a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation.
• Career and College Exploration Project: This project is broken down into clear and detailed descriptions for each slide of the presentation. It differs from other projects on the list because it weaves college research into the assignment, showing students the connection between education and careers. With 22 slides to complete, students will have an in-depth understanding of their chosen careers and how to navigate school and plan for future success.
• Career Exploration Project: This project is unique as it takes a realistic approach to career exploration, requiring students to find the pros and cons of three potential careers. They see that every job has perks and drawbacks, and part of pursuing a specific one comes down to their personal preference. The project includes a detailed outline, so students know precisely what to research and have on each slide of their digital presentation. Presenting their findings is a significant part of their grade, which helps strengthen their accountability, quality of work, and public speaking skills.
• Life Skills Career Research Project: This project is an excellent blend of hands-on production and digital skill-building, letting students show their findings in multiple formats. They research a career, finding things like education/training requirements, job responsibilities, drawbacks, benefits, opportunities for advancement, specific places of employment, and salaries. Students need to create a functional resume and attach it to the project. They use Google Drive to design poster components and can submit the project digitally or on a poster board.

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The Complete Guide to Career Exploration for Teens and Their Teachers

Students have a lot to consider as they make plans for life after high school. Career exploration can help students make, and feel confident about, their next steps. Download this resource to refer back to or share. 

How can we expect students to choose a career path that doesn't exist yet?

We may not be able to tell them what jobs will exist in the future, but we can help students make logical, informed decisions. We do this by inviting them to engage in career exploration. Exploring a variety of career paths and occupations, as well as relevant labor market information, helps students become equipped to make informed decisions that they feel good about. 

To skip straight to a section, click on the topic in the table of contents

Want to save or share? Fill out the form to download this page as a pdf.

What is career exploration.

Career exploration is “the exploration of the environment and the self with the aim of gathering career-related information.” It is a vital step in the career development process that students often first encounter as they begin to plan for life after high school. Although students need to engage in career exploration to make informed decisions regarding their post-secondary path, career exploration is not limited to this time of life. Instead, it is a continual process that individuals participate in as they progress through life.

Sometimes career exploration arises from necessity, as with students nearing graduation who must choose between different post-secondary education programs or when adults experience restructuring and subsequent job loss. Other times career exploration results from an internal desire to seek new opportunities. Whatever the case, it is becoming increasingly relevant for students to learn how to engage in career exploration since research shows that, on average, people now have five to seven careers in their lifetime. Career exploration is the key to equipping students not only for post-secondary success but for life-long professional adaptability.

Career Exploration is a cyclical, reflective, hands-on, trial and error process.

The career exploration process requires research and experimentation by the individual. This is the time for students to take an inventory of what they know about themselves and to begin looking for potential careers that interest them. But beyond just researching, they also need to explore through hands-on experiences in the classroom or through work and volunteer opportunities. Even investing in their hobbies is a valuable part of the exploration process. Like any good scientist, once students have completed their experiment, they need to reflect and draw their conclusions. Did they actually like the kind of work they completed? Is the career they were exploring compatible with their interests, skills, and values? Depending on how they answer these questions and others, they will either research new career options or they will research the next steps as they draw up a plan.

Why is Career Exploration Important for Students?

Career exploration is important for students because it helps them set informed goals and motivates them to achieve those goals. Let’s take a look at how career exploration accomplishes this. 

1. Career exploration exposes students to the myriad of career pathways that exist. 

Did you know that the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) includes 867 detailed occupations? Or that Canada’s National Occupational Classification (NOC) lists approximately 30,000 different job titles? That said, neither the SOC nor the NOC “attempt to provide an exhaustive list of job titles.” Instead, these lists aim “to cover the most commonly used and universally understood labels that identify work” in their respective labor markets. In other words, a list of 30,000 occupations does not cover all the jobs that exist in a single country. Given the tremendous number of job titles and opportunities, it is impossible for students to be aware of all their options without dedicating time and attention to career exploration. 

Discover how ChatterHigh personalizes career exploration for students.

2. Career exploration introduces students to labor market realities. 

Exposing students to the plethora of occupations within the labor market is a vital piece of career exploration. However, to help youth make informed career choices, it’s important to also teach them about a couple of fundamental economic principles: supply and demand. Of course, the economy is ever-evolving as technology continues to transform how people work and what kinds of jobs exist. So it’s impossible to tell your students exactly what the job market will look like by the time they are ready to enter the workforce. It’s possible that the jobs your students will one day have don’t exist yet. It’s also possible the jobs they’re dreaming of will change. However, by introducing them to trends in the economy and relevant labor market information, you can help your students gain insight into what areas of study will prepare them for tomorrow’s economy.

Check out “NOC, SOC, and Roll: How ChatterHigh Connects Students to Labor Market Information.”

3. Career exploration helps students make informed decisions and plans for their future. 

According to Sareena Hopkins, Executive Director at Canadian Career Development Foundation, an informed decision is based on self-awareness and opportunity awareness. So, to make an informed decision, students must learn about themselves and the different options available to them. And this is precisely where career exploration comes into play. Career exploration is the vehicle for building opportunity awareness. Active career exploration does more than simply list a number of post-secondary pathways available to students. Instead, it allows students to discover the skills, knowledge, and values involved in different jobs. Through exploring occupations, students gain relevant knowledge concerning job responsibilities, work environment, training requirements, remuneration, and more. As a result, they are equipped to make informed decisions. 

ChatterHigh fills an important gap in supporting opportunity awareness. It exposes individuals to a wide range of post-secondary options, industry sectors and occupations. This is vital for anyone, but particularly critical for young people who may have had limited access to social capital and limited exposure to the range of possibilities that exist in post-secondary and labor market systems. - Sareena Hopkins, Executive Director, Canadian Career Development Foundation

4. Career exploration helps students evaluate career pathways according to their values, skills, and interests. 

Since career exploration involves exploring the environment and the self, it requires students to reflect on themselves and the variety of job opportunities they’ve discovered. Since this exploration is not simply a mental exercise but requires hands-on experience, students will be able to test their hypotheses. That is, students can try out their career of choice through job shadowing, work or volunteer experience, or developing a new hobby. Then they can decide whether this career pathway is truly compatible with their values, skills, and interests. Considering the role that intrinsic motivation plays in job satisfaction , it’s important that we help students discover careers that interest them and allow them to use their skills. And career exploration is one key way we can do this.

5. Career exploration can help cultivate hope in students.  

Hope can be defined as the cognitive combination of agency and pathways. In other words, hope is where “goal-directed determination” and the “planning of ways to meet goals” intersect. That’s because knowing what our goal is, believing we can achieve it, and having a plan to achieve it shows us that our goal is attainable. And that’s precisely what career exploration does for students. Not every student who dreams of travelling to the moon is going to become an astronaut, but career exploration shows them that there is a path that leads to that outcome. It may be hard. It may not be the right fit for the student. They may even discover something better for them along the way. The beauty of career exploration is that it can help students feel more confident as they begin their post-secondary education. And if they do discover their original goal isn’t right for them, they can pursue a new interest and set a different goal. 

Interested in finding a way to help foster hope in your students? Check out ChatterHigh’s gamified platform that uses inquiry-based learning to expose students to a variety of career and post-secondary options. ChatterHigh’s approach has been proven to produce a wide range of positive outcomes, including making students feel more hopeful about their future. Ready to start exploring? Create your account now or book a demo .

When to Introduce Your Students to Career Exploration

It’s never too early to begin career exploration, especially when it’s engaging. In fact, to equip students to make informed decisions with minimal stress, we should begin career exploration by middle school.

Why Middle School is the Perfect Time for Students to Explore Careers

Middle school is the ideal time to introduce your students to career exploration for three main reasons. First, middle school students want to engage in career exploration. Second, middle school students benefit more from career intervention than their high school peers. Third, in high school, students are choosing courses that form their educational pathway and determine their post-secondary opportunities. 

>> Learn more about the benefits of early career exploration <<

Because career exploration is a continual process, there are benefits to bringing it into the classroom well before high school and it should be worked into all subject areas. Research shows that higher levels of career planfulness can result in heightened school engagement. Highlighting future career relevancy can also help to answer the age-old question, “When will I ever use this stuff?!” In a world where the average worker will have five to seven different careers during their lifetime, it is valuable to practice career exploration as an ongoing activity. So let’s take a look at exactly how we can get our students engaged in this exploratory process. 

How to Bring Career Exploration into the Classroom

There are a variety of ways to successfully bring career exploration into your classroom, no matter the age of your students.

"Career development is a lifelong process. At the elementary level, students are already making choices that will impact their future. It is important to expose students to these key career concepts early in their school careers. Having students reflect on their learning, choices, and who they are as individuals, students and learners will impact their social, emotional, academic, and career growth and development throughout school." - Newfoundland and Labrador Career Development Elementary Curriculum Guide , 2017

Regardless of whether or not career education is a separate subject in your region’s curriculum, you can use some of the following ideas to bring career exploration into your classroom. These activities can be integrated into different subjects, from language arts to math, and are a great way to help engage your students.

1. Take Our Kids to Work Day

Encourage your students to participate in Take Our Kids to Work Day. This is a fantastic opportunity for students to experience a day in the life of a professional. If your school isn’t participating in this day, consider implementing it yourself. To make the most of this event, you might consider creating a reflection assignment or a presentation. Sharing what they’ve learned in front of their class not only gets students thinking, but it also gets them educating one other.

2. Guest Speakers

Consider inviting professionals into your classroom as well. Bringing in guest speakers from the field is a great way to show students the relevance of what they’re learning in your classroom, while also helping them discover and learn more about potential careers. This is an especially great way to do career exploration with elementary students. 

If you want to find speakers from specific fields that interest your students, consider having your students (from Grades 6 to 12) complete the ChatterHigh Daily Quiz . As students quiz, they rate their interest in the programs of study and jobs that they encounter during the quiz. As their teacher, you can see a classwide summary of all their interests and select a speaker accordingly. (Find out more here .)

3. Brochures

Encourage your students to swing by your school’s guidance office to check out some of the brochures for different colleges and universities in your area. There are so many resources online, but a physical booklet can help guide students to the information they need.

4. Skilled Trades Competitions

Take a field trip, virtually or in-person, to a skilled trades competition. Skills Compétences Canada and WorldSkills USA both host competitions that showcase a variety of skilled trades. You can even find regional competitions closer to your school. This is a great way to introduce your students to the world of trades. 

5. Career Exploration Worksheets

Take advantage of free resources such as the When I Grow Up: Career Lessons and Activities for Grades 9-12 booklet. This downloadable PDF covers skills identification and career exploration, while also including resources so your students can refine their job search and employability skills.

6. Job Fairs

Organizing a job fair at your school is a great way to introduce your students to a variety of job opportunities in one place.

7. Online Skills and Personality Assessments

There are lots of free skill and personality assessments students can explore. However, there is one assessment in particular that Grade 12 students may benefit from completing — a Plum Profile . Plum is a company that specializes in categorizing and measuring people’s recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours — what they call “talents.” By creating their own account and completing the assessment, students can learn about their preferences and strengths so they have a better understanding of the kinds of jobs and work environments that would suit them best.

8. Gamified Career Exploration 

The ChatterHigh Daily Quiz is a great bellringer activity that allows students to regularly engage in career exploration. With the ability to earn points that can be used to win prizes or donate to charity, students are motivated to complete the research activity that will expose them to all the general areas of study and help them discover interesting occupations. As a teacher, you can even access lesson plans for your region that show you how the Daily Quiz aligns with your curriculum and how you can easily incorporate it into your classroom. To learn more about the quiz, see the section "How the ChatterHigh Career Exploration Activity Works."  Or check out our blog to learn how you can get started with career exploration in your classroom in five easy steps.

How Career Exploration Complements College and Career Readiness Standards and Programs

College and career readiness is a top priority across the country. In fact, the Common Core Standards were developed to ensure that every student who graduates from high school is equipped with the fundamental skills and knowledge needed to succeed in post-secondary studies or in the workforce. However, these standards emphasize academic measures, specifically literacy and numeracy. While it is vital for students to possess these aptitudes, to truly be college- or career-ready, students must expand their awareness of opportunities in post-secondary and labor market systems. 

“Career readiness becomes refined through systematic career exploration that includes an intentional process of reality-testing career preferences. Such reality-testing occurs along a continuum ranging from personalized research, information interviews/observations, externships, internships, curricular and co-curricular experiences.” -Spencer Niles, Professor and Co-Director, THRIVE Research & Intervention Center and Editor, Counselor Education and Supervision 

Therefore, career exploration is a necessary complement to the standards.

It is worth noting that while most states adopted the Common Core Standards, a few did not. Instead, these states (Alaska, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Indiana, Virginia, and South Carolina) created their own state-specific standards , while Minnesota opted for a hybrid of state-developed standards and the Common Core Standards. 

>>Click here for a map showing college- and career-readiness policies by state.<<

Unlike the Common Core Standards, some of the state-developed standards address college and career readiness through specific courses and curricula. For example, the Texas curriculum includes courses such as Investigating Careers and College and Career Readiness , while Minnesota's state-specific standards dictate that school districts are responsible for helping students “ explore their educational, college, and career interests, aptitudes, and aspirations and develop a plan for a smooth and successful transition to postsecondary education or employment .”

Regardless of whether a state’s standards explicitly address post-secondary planning or career exploration, states can further promote college and career readiness through adopting other programs and initiatives, such as dual enrollment opportunities, Career Technical Education (CTE), Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), and more. To learn more about these programs, click on the tabs below.

" Dual enrollment " is a term referring to any program that allows high school students to complete college courses. Most often, a student who participates in a dual enrollment opportunity will receive a credit at both the high school and college levels. While these dual credit opportunities are common throughout the country, they are not all identical. In some cases, a student will complete a dual enrollment course at their high school, while in other cases they will attend a local college or complete it online. Regardless of the format, dual enrollment opportunities allow students to take advantage of more subject-specific courses that align with their interests. If a student is considering a certain career path, participating in a dual enrollment program can allow them to get a taste of that field to see if they want to continue down that path, before they’ve officially enrolled in a college or university program.

To learn about the dual enrollment programs in your state, click here .

Career Technical Education (CTE) refers to “ education that combines academic and technical skills with the knowledge and training needed to succeed in today’s labor market.” Unlike traditional vocational education, CTE is not designed for a narrow segment of the student population. Rather, CTE derives its structure from the 16 Career Clusters in the National Career Clusters Framework, which include jobs from a wide variety of industries, such as manufacturing, agriculture, business, health care, and more. In this way, students with various vocational goals can benefit from CTE. Furthermore, CTE can help expose students to career possibilities. To discover what CTE students have to say about it, watch the video below.

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) are federal grant programs designed to help students from low-income families enter and succeed in post-secondary education. One way grants can do this is through supporting programs that focus on making students college- and career-ready. For example, Desoto Independent School District created its college and career readiness program, NXT Generation GEAR UP , with the aim of building an academic community that will foster student success in post-secondary education.

AVID is an organization that provides a specialized curriculum that schools can purchase to prepare students for life after high school. Through access to professional development, resources, and support, AVID equips teachers and students all for the benefit of students. AVID partners with both primary and secondary schools so that students receive the education they need to prepare them for college and career success. In fact, the “college-going culture of an AVID Elementary campus encourages students to think about their college and career plans .” In this way, not only does AVID help equip students with the skills needed for academic success, but it also creates the perfect environment for meaningful career exploration. 

How the ChatterHigh Career Exploration Activity Works

ChatterHigh offers students a divergent career exploration experience through our 10-question Daily Quiz. The powerful algorithm behind the quiz allows students to discover countless post-secondary programs and career pathways, while also offering personalization as students progress through the activity. Here’s how it works.

Book a demo to learn more about ChatterHigh career exploration activities. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(8361206, '31fefa79-0b9e-4921-839b-7b2bad56de22', {"useNewLoader":"true","region":"na1"});

Students receive questions relating to post-secondary education and career paths, as well as health, financial literacy, and labor market resources. After reading their question, students click “Research.”

Step 2 

Students are taken to the webpage containing the answer. Once they’ve found the answer, they return to the ChatterHigh site where they submit their response.

Students complete the Interest and Awareness Survey for the question they’ve just answered.

After answering a question about a post-secondary program or a career, students receive an Interest and Awareness Survey, which is a brief, 4-question survey. The first two questions are about the organization, while the last two are about the program or job. Indicating their level of interest allows the platform to learn what kinds of questions to tailor to the students after the students have answered 100 questions. The first 100 questions are dedicated to divergent exploration so that students are exposed to all the general areas of study. After answering 100 questions, a couple of questions in each quiz are personalized to the student based on the interests they’ve previously indicated in their surveys. (To learn more about the benefits of ChatterHigh’s personalized career exploration activity, check out this blog .)

Students review and reflect on their exploration by clicking on “Interests” at the top of their screen. 

Thanks to the Interest and Awareness Survey, everything that catches a student’s attention while they quiz (that is, anything they rank as “Interesting” or “Very Interesting”) is recorded in their Interests Profile. The more they quiz, the more interests they accumulate and the more reports they unlock! There are a number of helpful reports available to students within the Interests Profile. In particular, the Top 5 Interest Report allows students to compare their top five colleges and universities, programs of study, and jobs and careers. (Click here to learn about how the Top 5 Interest Report can help your students reflect on their post-secondary options.)

Students use the points they’ve earned from quizzing to enter prize draws or to donate to charity. 

The chance to win prizes and donate to charity motivates students to engage in career exploration, particularly during a competition. (Click here to find out when our next national competition is happening.)

Have a Question or Want a Closer Look at ChatterHigh's Career Exploration Activity?

Feel free to contact us or book a demo. We’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. Don't forget, you can download this entire page as a pdf to refer back to or share with colleagues. 

14 Career Sites for High School Students (All Free)

By: Author Amanda L. Grossman

Posted on Last updated: January 9, 2024

Helping high school students choose a career? Career sites for high school students plus free career exploration activities for high school students.

Helping high school students choose a career?

It’s an awesome thing to give teens motivation and purpose behind their education – experts say this can increase their focus, interest, and even get more of your students to graduate. 

The thing is: most students can’t name very many careers or job types. It’s because they haven’t been exposed to tons of industries, careers, vocations, or even jobs.

That's why career awareness and career exploration for students is so important at this stage in life.

These career sites for high school students will help them to first cast a broad net into career and skillset exploration, and then to narrow their lists down enough so that that they can do meaningful career and job research.

Helping High School Students Choose a Career

Before we jump into these great websites, let's put a little structure to how you can help a high school student choose a career.

Plus, let's manage our expectations a bit. I mean, it's not 100% likely that a high school student is able to pick out what they want to be (even after they go through all this career exploration) at this age.

And that's okay!

I think it's important to help them narrow down 2-4 possible fields, and then put in some research into those. Using the websites below.

Here are some steps to help high schoolers pick 2-4 career fields to research:

Step #1: Skillset Identification

First, you need to help a student figure out what their skill set is.

Step #2: Interests Identification

Then, you need to help them figure out what they’re interested in doing, that is a paid position.

Step #3: Match Skillset and Interests to Career Fields

Where these two things intersect is where they should be looking for careers and jobs.

BUT, they might have a ton of different industries/jobs/careers that come back from this stage.

So, they’ll need to narrow that list down to do meaningful career research.

Step #4: Narrow Careers Down

Once they’ve narrowed down to 3-5 different jobs, they’ll want to run each through a research phase to learn more.

Step #5: Research those Careers to Find Out More

Researching a career:

• Income Ranges
• Education Requirements
• Skills Requirements
• Different job types
• Day in the Life
• Reading career books for students

Let's dive into how to do all of this, with some pretty awesome + free career sites for high schoolers.

Career Sites for High School Students – Skills Exploration

This section of career sites for high schoolers is dedicated to free online quizzes that will help your students figure out what their current skill set is, and which ones they might want to develop further.

Psst: got students who will not be going to college? Here's a resource of the best careers without college . You also might want to check out RISE Up's free classroom activities from the National Retail Federation.

1. Princeton Review’s Career Quiz

Students will need to register (for free), and then answer a series of 24 questions.

They’ll then receive one of four “interest colors” for “Your Interest” and “Your Style”:

• Red: Expediting
• Green: Communicating
• Blue: Planning
• Yellow: Administrating

For example, I received Yellow for both. Which means I’m interested in jobs that require organizing and systematizing, and my style is to work where in an orderly manner with few surprises (haha!).

You can then tab over to “Recommended Careers” for a list specific to your interest and style.

Bonus: One of my recommended careers? Is a small business owner…which I am. Woohoo!

2. Career Girls Career Quiz

Here’s a personality-based career quiz for girls that offers 35 different characteristics they can check off about themselves (multiple choice is totally allowed).

Then, based on those personality traits, they’ll receive a list of appropriate careers.

For example, I plugged in about 10 different ones about myself, and got the following list of potential careers:

• Real Estate Agent
• Athletic Trainer
• Physical Therapist
• Social Worker
• Human Resources Manager
• Sociologist
• Fitness Trainer
• Emergency Management Director
• Psychologist

3. O*Net Interest Profiler

Gives you RIASEC interest levels, which correspond with different jobs.

• Investigative
• Enterprising
• Conventional

Once you get your interests, you then go here and find out which jobs line up with those interests.

Hint: if you don’t have time to get your students using this website? Then they can take the PDF version of the quiz .

4. Education.com Online Career Test

Answer 35 questions, register with an email, and then you get your results (on the same screen – not through your email).

The different types of career paths you get measured for:

• Service-minded
• Communications
• Environmental

Note: this site steers students towards the type of coursework they should take, based on their results.

5. Career One Stop’s Skill Matcher

Career One Stop has figured out 40 workplace skills, and created a skills matcher to help students match their real-life skills with them.

Students can choose a beginner, basic, skilled, advanced, or expert level in each of the 40 listed workplace skills.

In the end, they’ll offer your teens a list of jobs where their natural skills and the ones they want to develop come into play.

Career Sites for High School Students – Career Awareness

Career awareness for high school students is so important. Remember, most students can rattle off maybe 20 careers or job types – but there are literally thousands or even millions of different types of jobs out there.

Psst: here's a take your child to work day activity you might want to try, for small business owners.

Not only that, but making students aware of the skills needed for certain careers so that they can work towards getting those, as well as what a day in the life of that job looks like, is critical as they continue to tweak their career choices moving forward.

These career sites for high school students will help you do all of that, and more. Plus, they all offer free resources that I’ll point out, below!

1. Road Trip Nation

An incredibly cool website for students – where people travel around the US in an Green RV, to talk about and document people in all types of jobs about work that they love, getting lost in their careers, finding their ways, etc.

Students can click “Start Your Roadmap”, and then answer three different questions. Then, they’re sent to a page of actual job ideas that list, among other info, the trend on that type of career (how much it’s growing or not growing). Not only that, but you can click over to “Leaders” and “Majors” to get more info/follow in the footsteps of how others got to that position.

I just love the milestones listed for how someone got into a particular job!

2. Career Girls

I cannot say enough good things about this website – it’s got a huge amount of resources for teen girls to:

• Discover things about themselves
• Research different career paths
• Hear from career role models about specific jobs
• Figure out how to develop employment skills they’re lacking

Be sure to check out this page , where you can download guides that will outline how the activities on this site align with Common Core Standards.

3. Career Village

Here’s a really cool site that will connect your high school students with real-world professionals so that they can get their profession-specific questions answered.

Students can leave a question, and a professional will (hopefully) respond to it!

Actually, I’m really impressed with the responses from real professionals.

Just check out an example:

4. Job Shadow

On this site, students can listen to over 400 videos from professionals talking about what a day in their work life looks like.

Interviews are available from professions like:

• Bail Bondsmen
• Firefighter
• Radiologist
• Veterinarian
• Pharmaceutical Rep
• And many, many more

5. Vault’s Day in the Life

Check out this collection of written “Day in the Life” from hundreds of professionals in all kinds of career fields.

For example, under “Human Services”, you can find a Day in the Life from:

• An in-House Grant Writer
• A Foundation Officer
• A Peace Corp Volunteer

6. Mapping Your Future

On this site, there’s the following options:

• Visit the featured career
• Match my career interests
• Review careers by clusters
• Career search

I specifically like the career clusters, because once your student gets an idea of a broad industry they’d like to be in (like “healthcare”), this tool helps them drill down into lots of specific jobs that fall under that.

7. Department of Labor Employment Websites

When researching teen career sites for this article, I was pleasantly surprised to find youth and student career resources on my own state’s employment website.

You can find your state’s various employment websites here , and then root around to see what youth and student resources/services they have.

8. My Future

You can input a generic industry/career type (like “science”), and it spits out tons of job titles and salary ranges for that industry.

9. The Forage

The Forage is this awesome new concept where actual companies who hire people everyday have created virtual internship experiences.

Not only that, but:

• You can usually put the certification/experience on your resume (they have instructions at the end of each)
• Recruiters routinely go through completers of these programs first to find new job candidates

I reached out to them, and there are actually 4 intern experiences high school students can take online, for free!

Here they are:

• Kennedys Virtual Experience Programme
• Global Introduction to Law Program
• ANZ Job Ready Virtual Experience Program

They just opened up this program to high school students, so be on the lookout for further opportunities in the future.

Psst: looking for more? I've included some career game sites in this article on career exploration for students .

10. MyCareerTech

This is a free platform created with CTE certified teachers.

Each topic comes with video lessons, a certification, lesson plans, and tests.

Career clusters are extensive – check them out:

Career Awareness for High School Students

What exactly does it mean to be “career aware” for high schoolers?

Let's discuss that.

I think there are several things teens need to know in order to be career aware.

Student Understands Difference Between a Job and a Career

A job is different from a career, and vice versa.

A job is “a paid position of regular employment.” A career is “an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress.”

Each person's career will likely be filled with multiple jobs, internships, etc.

Also, sometimes you take a job that you don't necessarily want or like, because:

• a) it pays the bills
• b) it's a stepping stone to where you eventually do want to get to

Student Understands How Skills Work within Careers

There are specific skills someone must have to work in a particular field. Some skills you need to have before you can even apply for an entry-level position. Some skills, you obtain while on the job.

Skills can be obtained through apprenticeships, through internships, through education, through experience, through extra-curricular classes you take online, etc.

Here's a great CommonLit reading assignment called, “Will the ‘Right” College Major Get You a Job?” Another great one to give your students is “The Myth of the College Dropout” .

Pro Tip: It's important for students to know that some skills are “transferrable”, meaning, you can use that same skill in a different career (and you should point those out in a resume if you're looking to switch jobs).

Student Understands the Career Industry is Dynamic and Ever-Changing

Careers go in and out. Sometimes a career is trending up, and sometimes it's dying out. Sometimes, it's maintaining.

Something else that's particularly important for high school students to understand – since they haven't entered the job market yet and might not be for several more years – is how a particular career is trending.

You wouldn't want them to spend 4 years studying for a career field that will hardly be available when they get out of college or trade school, right?

That's why I love the bureau of labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook , which shares if a particular field is growing/expanding or not.

Student Understands Careers Have Different Pay

While each career holds a host of jobs at different pay points, we all know that some career fields pay more than others. Not only that, but some career fields have more hourly-type jobs, while others have more salary-type jobs.

Wow – did you make it all the way to the end? A gold star for YOU! I hope you found these career sites for high school students helpful, and are super-pumped to help that next generation of workers to get a clearer path on how to move forward. Not only that, but THANK YOU for your work as a teacher! We need more caring role models for students like you.

And if your teen is ready to start earning something on the side now? Here are the best online jobs for teens that pay .

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Kami Blog > Career Exploration Activities for High School Students

Career Exploration Activities for High School Students

Career exploration and discussions are a key part of a high school student’s experience, and for many, it’s their “why”; why they’re at school, why they chose certain subjects, and why they’re aiming for high grades. However, it’s a turbulent time in our world, and many of our students feel overwhelmed about their futures – with climate change and Covid only two of many concerns keeping them up at night.

With that in mind, here are some career activities and ideas to help you approach career education in a mindful but effective way.

1. It’s all about soft skills!

Start your careers exploration unit by defining “ soft skills ” and getting students to list all of the qualities and personality traits they’re proud of. Students can brainstorm skills such as being punctual, open-minded, having a sense of humor, being patient, or even just being good at talking to people. Give students ideas about what qualities you think they have and encourage peers to give some positive ideas too – a nice moment for everyone to value their self-worth and uniqueness.

From their brainstorming, ask them to consider how they developed these skills; what was it in their life that helped them get so good at being organized and always on time? Was it involvement in a sports team? Are they a good communicator because, as an older sibling, they’ve helped to mediate younger sibling arguments? Explain how these simple things can be their key selling points for future careers – all of the soft skills that employers may want but don’t necessarily want to spend time or money training people in.

Starting with “soft skills” helps ease students’ anxiety stemming from the big decision of deciding on a career path or even the cost/pressure of getting into college. It’s also a way for students to think about building a curriculum vitae as they go for part-time employment.

During their next lesson, define “ hard skills ” and get them to consider all of the skills they have that they’ve had to learn or are specialized in, such as using certain computer programs or speaking multiple languages. This then naturally flows into chats about qualifications, internships, and career goals, in a supported way. Planting these seeds helps students see themselves on a career pathway rather than believe that careers are a whole new—and at times scary—journey they’re yet to start. By having students engage in critical thinking about soft and hard skills, it’s a positive way to start the unit, and they get to see their own career readiness as competent, skilled young adults.

2. Share career pathways and experiences

To help students understand career planning and pathways further, why not get some helpful friends and family members to record mini videos about their jobs. Keep these short, only up to five minutes. Within the video, have them cover their current career, the soft and hard skills they need, if they’ve had a different career, and what they like or dislike about their job. Students can use these videos to continue thinking about soft and hard skills and understand how often people’s career pathways are non-linear. The latter is really refreshing for students and often a good reminder that, over time, your career goals and career interests change. It also lets them relax and remember that the world won’t end if they don’t commit to a career decision this very second! Use these videos as a starter or “do now” task in my lesson plan.

Now, they might not always show it, but teenagers do like hearing about a person’s career journey – especially how they got to that career, why they chose that path, and other opportunities, such as travel. You could have students interview a family friend or member of their choice, focusing interview questions on soft skills, career development, and changes. This fun activity allows students to see how people may start in a part-time job flipping burgers before making more permanent career decisions.

When looking at different types of careers, have students complete mix and match quizzes about employment keywords, such as full/part-time, fixed-term, seasonal, etc. As these are often words that students have heard of but might not know. This is a quick task but builds good base knowledge and build confidence.

3. Thinking about the future

It’s important to realize that, for a lot of students, their career options and path will look very different from our own. Covid has kick-started it all by introducing more remote and flexible working . Try running an activity around the gig economy and flexibility, getting students to define each, look for some examples, and use critical thinking to evaluate their findings. This lesson helps get students excited about the future while giving them an opportunity to weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of things like the gig economy, so they feel informed. It allows for discussion around any concerns they have and to problem solve what this might look like for them personally. Another fun activity for students is doing mini research tasks or a “Google Race” to find out about jobs that once existed but now don’t, e.g. chimney sweeping, manual switchboard operators, or lamp-lighters. Students find some of the past occupations funny, and it reminds them that change is a constant.

4. Finding the sweet spot

To support students in thinking about their career choices, make a worksheet for them to complete, either using keywords or images. On the worksheet, have a Venn diagram for students to record what they’re good at, what they enjoy, and what kind of lifestyle they imagine for themselves. The latter is always fun, as students consider if they want to travel, buy a first home, or have time to pursue and master a hobby. In the middle, I have students consider all three sections and record what they want from a job to utilize their strengths and achieve their lifestyle. Students may record whether they want to work with people, alone, or with animals; if they wish to work indoors or outdoors; if they want a creative career. This supports students’ initial career research into either specific careers or broader career fields. From here, they can then access support from the school careers team or CTE.

See your role in career exploration from a mentoring point of view, where you focus on the possibilities of careers as well as the variety of careers. The last thing you want is for your students to feel locked into a five-year plan! Instead, show them that getting clued-up about careers now makes way for further productive discussion, planning, and opportunity down the track.

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Great Career Day Activities For High Schoolers (Including free worksheet and career aptitude tests)

Find a Job You Really Want In

There are hundreds of great careers out there, yet few students are aware of all the possibilities.

In fact, students’ list of possible careers is often limited to family, friends, and those they are exposed to in school. That’s why career exploratory activities are so important to students making informed career decisions.

We compiled this resource to help teachers guide students in their career exploration journey.

Below you can find helpful career tests, virtual career day videos, and a free worksheet to guide students as they research multiple careers.

Career Aptitude Tests

Career videos for jobs, activity to research potential careers, other activities and career skills.

• Sign Up For More Advice and Jobs

Career aptitude tests can help students not only better understand their strengths and interests, but how they translate to the workforce.

Having students take an attitude test can help them realize a passion for podiatry, a knack for carpentry , or a million other possibilities.

• Truity – Career Test

Truity’s 15-minute career test measures key personality factors to show you the exact careers that suit your strengths. No account or sign-in is needed for students to take Truity’s career test.

• CareerExplorer’s Career And Personality Test

CareerExplorer’s test takes approximately 45 minutes. Like Truity, no login is required to take CareerExplorer’s personality test. CareerExplorer’s test is far more in-depth and might be a better fit for students in their last years of high school.

Arranging speakers from the community to speak to your class can be incredibly rewarding. However, even in the best of times arranging schedules and finding a diverse sample of speakers can be challenging.

We compiled a list of videos that allow students to hear from multiple workers in exciting fields. This can spark interest and help students better envision what it would be like to work these jobs.

Click on the links below to view YouTube videos of people sharing information about their jobs and careers.

Videos On What It’s Like To Be A…

• Archeologists
• Veternarian
• Physical Therapist
• Wildlife Biologist
• Army Dentist
• Aerospace Engineer
• Marine Biologist
• Nutritionist

If Youtube is not an option, you may peruse the wider library of videos available at OneStop’s website . Note: Not all of these videos have interviews like the ones highlighted above.

It is important for students to research prospective careers. To help guide the research, Zippia created a free worksheet teachers can use (in conjunction with the previous activities if desired) to help students explore potential careers.

Students will use https://www.zippia.com/explore/ to research 4 careers, answering questions about education and skills needed, salary, and job responsibilities.

Below is a preview of the downloadable worksheet:

You can download the worksheet for use in your classrooms below: Download Career Research Worksheet

If you anticipate your students will struggle picking careers to research (or you would like to insure they research careers from multiple industries or different educational background), you can provide them with careers to research instead of letting them pick out careers on their own.

Similarly, if you have had students take the career aptitude test, they can use that as the springboard for their research activity.

If you have covered the above content or want to delve deeper into specifics for job hunting, we have a list of vital job seeking skills and articles that are needed for students to conqueror the job market.

• Best Jobs For High Schoolers
• How To Write A Resume (With Examples)
• How To Write A Job-Getting Cover Letter
• 50 Most Common Interview Questions
• How To Get An Internship
• What To Wear (And What To NOT Wear) To A Job Interview

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Kathy is the head of content at Zippia with a knack for engaging audiences. Prior to joining Zippia, Kathy worked at Gateway Blend growing audiences across diverse brands. She graduated from Troy University with a degree in Social Science Education.

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• Career Day Activities High School

7 Interesting Career Games For High School Students

Greetings, future career conquistador! Are you feeling like you’re standing at the crossroads of life, trying to choose which path to take, as choosing the right career is there on your bucket list , but you are perplexed at the moment? Don’t fret; it’s not as scary as it seems.

In fact, it’s an exciting adventure filled with endless possibilities. Have you considered taking a spin on the career discovery carousel? Yes, that’s right! There are career games that are designed to show you the ups, downs, and everything in between different careers. So, why not grab a seat, buckle up, and let’s take a wild ride into the whimsical world of career exploration?

Career Games to help high schoolers choose the best for them 

Career and a few career exploration games can come as a breather before exploring and coming to a decision about which career path to choose. Hence, the below-mentioned classroom games can be the ideal fit for much-needed information and confidence. 

1. Career Role Play 

Career role play is a dynamic and immersive way for high school students to grasp the complexities and intricacies of various professions. Here’s how you can facilitate this activity in the classroom:

• Select professions: Select a diverse range of professions for students to simulate, including but not limited to, a physician, an attorney, an educator, and an engineer.
• Offer scripts: Offer students detailed scripts for each profession, highlighting essential duties, obligations, and decisions that may arise.
• Assign partakers: Assign students to specific roles, or allow them to opt for their preferred profession.
• Recreate the setting: Transform the classroom into the corresponding professional setting, using props and materials as necessary.
• Encourage engagement: Urge students to actively participate in the simulation, employing critical thinking and problem-solving skills to navigate the challenges and responsibilities of their assigned roles.

Through this game, students will gain a more nuanced understanding of the intricacies of various careers and develop essential skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving.

2. Career Matchmaker

Career Matchmaker is a dynamic and engaging way for high school students to explore their interests, strengths, and values in relation to different careers. Here’s how you can facilitate this activity in the classroom:

• Assess interests, strengths, and values: Have students take a career assessment or questionnaire to determine their interests, strengths, and values.
• Research careers: Have students research a variety of careers, gathering information about the duties, skills required, and personal characteristics that would make someone a good fit for each career.
• Create profiles: Have students create profiles for each career, including information about the duties, skills required, and personal characteristics that would make someone a good fit for each career.
• Match students with careers: Have students match their interests, strengths, and values with the profiles of the careers they researched.
• Debrief: After the activity, have students debrief with the class, sharing the careers they were matched with and what they learned about themselves and the careers they explored.

This game is a fun and interactive way for students to explore different careers and gain insight into their own interests, strengths, and values. It also helps them develop research and critical thinking skills, as well as their understanding of the career exploration process.

3. Career Trivia

Career Trivia is an educational activity that aims to provide students with information about various careers and professions. It can be used as a way to help students explore their interests, skills, and values, and make informed decisions about their future careers.

To conduct Career Trivia in a classroom, you can follow these steps:

• Select the careers to be included in the trivia: Choose a variety of careers from different fields and industries, such as medicine, technology, law, arts, and education. You can also consider including both traditional and unconventional careers.
• Prepare the questions: Develop a set of questions for each career, covering topics such as the duties, requirements, skills, and education needed. You can also include information about earning potential and job outlook.
• Divide the students into teams: You can divide the students into groups of 3-4 individuals, or have them work individually.
• Conduct the trivia: Ask the questions one at a time, and have each team or individual write down their answers. You can award points for correct answers, and the team or individual with the most points at the end of the game wins.
• Discuss the answers: After the trivia, you can go over the answers with the students, and provide additional information and insights about the careers discussed.

Career Trivia is a fun and interactive way to educate students about various careers and help them make informed decisions about their future. Additionally, it can also help to foster teamwork and collaboration among students and provide opportunities for students to learn from each other.

4. Career Speed Networking

Career Speed Networking is a fun and interactive way for high school students to learn about various careers and the paths people have taken to get there. Here’s how you can facilitate this activity in the classroom:

• Invite professionals: Invite professionals from a variety of careers to come and speak with students. You can reach out to local businesses, alumni, or other community members to participate.
• Set up the event: Arrange for the professionals to be stationed at different tables or stations in the classroom. Set a timer for a specific amount of time, such as 5 minutes, for each station.
• Assign students to stations: Assign students to rotate through the different stations, meeting with each professional and asking questions about their careers.
• Encourage questions: Encourage students to ask open-ended questions about the professional’s career path, their day-to-day tasks, and the skills and experiences needed to succeed in their field.
• Debrief: After the event, have students debrief with the class, sharing what they learned from each professional and what careers they found most interesting.

This game is a great way for students to learn about different careers in a hands-on and engaging way. It also helps them develop their communication and networking skills, which will be valuable as they continue to explore their career options.

5. Career Mad Libs

Career Mad Libs is a fun and engaging activity that allows students to explore different careers by filling in the blanks of a career-related story. It is a great way to introduce students to a variety of careers and help them understand the different aspects and requirements of each one.

To conduct Career Mad Libs in a classroom, you can follow these steps:

• Choose the careers to be included: Select a variety of careers from different fields and industries, such as medicine, technology, law, arts, and education.
• Prepare the Mad Libs stories: Create a Mad Libs story for each career, including blanks for the type of work, required skills, education, salary, and other relevant information.
• Divide the students into teams: Divide the students into small groups of 3-4 individuals, or have them work individually.
• Conduct the activity: Give each team or individual a copy of the Mad Libs story, and ask them to fill in the blanks with the appropriate words or phrases. You can provide suggestions or guidelines for the words or phrases to be used.
• Review the completed stories: After the students have completed the Mad Libs, ask each team or individual to read their story out loud. You can discuss the stories as a class and provide additional information and insights about the careers discussed.

Career Mad Libs is a fun and interactive way to educate students about different careers and help them understand the various aspects of each one. Additionally, it can also help to promote creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration among students.

6. Career Mind Mapping

Career Mind Mapping is an educational activity that allows students to explore different careers and understand their own interests, skills, and values in relation to potential careers. This activity involves creating a visual representation of the relationships between various careers and personal attributes.

To conduct Career Mind Mapping in a classroom, you can follow these steps:

• Prepare the materials: Provide each student with a large piece of paper and markers, or have them create a digital mind map using a tool such as Popplet or MindNode.
• Introduction: Provide an overview of the activity, and explain the purpose of Career Mind Mapping. Encourage the students to think about their interests, skills, and values, and how they relate to different careers.
• Conduct the mind mapping: Ask the students to create a mind map, with the chosen careers as the main branches, and personal attributes such as interests, skills, and values as the sub-branches. Encourage the students to connect the branches in a way that represents their personal understanding of the relationships between the careers and their personal attributes.
• Review the mind maps: After the students have completed their mind maps, ask each student to share their map with the class and explain their connections and insights. You can also lead a class discussion to compare the different mind maps and provide additional information and insights about the careers discussed.

Career Mind Mapping is a powerful and engaging way to help students explore their interests, skills, and values, and understand the relationships between these personal attributes and different careers. It can also promote critical thinking, creativity, and self-reflection, and help students make informed decisions about their future.

7. Career Charades

Career Charades is a great activity that allows students to learn about different careers through acting and guessing. This activity involves acting out various career-related scenarios and having the other students guess which career is being represented.

To conduct Career Charades in a classroom, you can follow these steps:

• Prepare the materials: Create a list of career-related scenarios, such as “performing a surgery,” “building a bridge,” or “representing a client in court.”
• Conduct the charades: Ask each team or individual to take turns acting out the career-related scenarios, without speaking or making any sounds. The other students should try to guess which career is being represented based on their actions.
• Award points: Award points for correct guesses, and keep track of the score for each team or individual.
• Review the answers: After the charades have been completed, review the answers with the class, and provide additional information and insights about the careers discussed.

Career Charades is a fun and interactive way to educate students. Moreover, it also helps to promote teamwork, communication, and critical thinking skills and provides opportunities for students to learn from each other.

In conclusion, the journey of discovering your career path can be a fun and enlightening experience. By playing career games and other activities like public speaking and robotics activities, you can explore different careers, gain insights into your strengths and interests, and make informed decisions about your future. So, embrace the journey and remember, there’s no wrong choice. The most important thing is to follow your passion and find a career that brings you joy and fulfillment. So go forth, and may the career discovery be with you!

Having a 10+ years of experience in teaching little budding learners, I am now working as a soft skills and IELTS trainers. Having spent my share of time with high schoolers, I understand their fears about the future. At the same time, my experience has helped me foster plenty of strategies that can make their 4 years of high school blissful. Furthermore, I have worked intensely on helping these young adults bloom into successful adults by training them for their dream colleges. Through my blogs, I intend to help parents, educators and students in making these years joyful and prosperous.

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For students & teachers, 4 relatable career exploration activities for high schoolers.

Jeannette Barreto

As educators, we have the unique opportunity to shape the future of our students and prepare them for the world beyond the classroom. A crucial aspect of this preparation is guiding students through career exploration. Career exploration helps students understand their interests and passions and equips them with the essential skills and knowledge to make informed decisions about their future paths. In this blog, we will delve into the significance of career exploration and how EVERFI, an innovative digital learning platform, can assist teachers in empowering their students throughout this transformative journey. November’s National Career Development Month is an especially relevant time in the school year to explore these concepts in the classroom.

What is Career Exploration?

Career exploration is the process by which individuals, particularly students, delve into the world of work to understand their interests, values, and aptitudes in relation to potential careers. It’s not just about finding a job; it’s about discovering where one’s passion, skills, and the demands of the labor market intersect. Through a myriad of activities, such as internships, career assessments, informational interviews, and research, individuals gain a clearer perspective of the professions available and the educational pathways leading to them. 

By undergoing career exploration, students are better positioned to make informed choices about their academic pursuits and future professional endeavors, ensuring a more fulfilled and aligned career journey.

The Importance of Career Exploration 

In today’s fast-paced world, understanding potential career paths early on can drastically affect a student’s future. This section emphasizes why it’s crucial to start this exploration early and how it benefits the students’ overall development.

Understanding the Impact: Why Career Exploration Matters 

Career exploration is a fundamental part of personal and academic development. By encouraging students to explore various career paths, we enable them to envision their future possibilities and set meaningful goals. This early exposure to diverse professions broadens their horizons and instills a sense of purpose in their educational pursuits.  

Career exploration also aids in the development of self-awareness. When students engage in activities that align with their interests and strengths, they become more confident in their abilities, leading to improved academic performance and a higher level of motivation. 

Building a Solid Foundation: Early Career Awareness in Education 

Introducing career awareness at an early age can profoundly impact students’ future choices. As teachers, we can incorporate age-appropriate career exploration activities into our lessons, exposing young minds to various professions and industries. By creating a positive and supportive learning environment, we can nurture their curiosity and aspirations from the beginning of their educational journey.  

Nurturing Students’ Interests: How Career Exploration Encourages Motivation 

Students are more likely to stay engaged in their studies when they see the relevance of their education to their future goals. Career exploration bridges the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications, allowing students to connect academic subjects to practical uses in the workforce. This connection fosters intrinsic motivation and a thirst for knowledge as students recognize how their studies directly contribute to their future success.  

4 Relatable Career Exploration Activities for High Schoolers 

Helping high school students explore potential career paths is vital to preparing them for their future. By engaging in interactive and relatable activities, students can gain valuable insights into various professions, develop essential skills, and make informed decisions about their career aspirations. In this blog, we present four relatable career exploration activities designed to spark curiosity and inspire high schoolers as they embark on their journey of self-discovery. 

1. Career Shadowing Day

Organizing a career shadowing day allows students to gain firsthand experience of a typical day in a particular profession. Collaborate with local businesses, hospitals, law firms, tech companies, or workplaces that align with students’ interests. Prioritize disciplines that students have expressed curiosity about or might consider as future career options.  

On the designated day, pair students with professionals in their chosen fields and allow them to shadow these experts for a few hours. Please encourage students to take notes and ask questions about their daily yaks, responsibilities, and the educational pathways that led to their careers. After the experience, hold a debriefing session where students can share their reflections and insights. 

2. Career Interest Inventories 

Career interest inventories are valuable tools that help high schoolers identify potential career paths based on their interests, values, and personality traits. Various online resources and assessments, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or the Holland Code test, provide insights into career preferences. 

Have students complete one or more of these inventories and then discuss the results together. Please encourage them to research careers that align with their interests and explore educational requirements, job outlook, and potential salary ranges for each profession. 

3. Mock Interviews, and Resume Building 

Preparing for job interviews and building a compelling resume are crucial skills for future careers. Organize mock interview sessions where students take turns being both interviewers and interviewees. Provide sample interview questions and offer constructive feedback to help them improve their communication skills and confidence. 

Simultaneously, guide students in creating their resumes. Highlight the importance of tailoring the resume for specific job applications, emphasizing relevant skills, experiences, and achievements. Allow students to explore different resume formats and templates to find one that best represents their unique qualities. 

4. Career Panels and Guest Speakers 

Invite professionals from various fields to participate in career panels or deliver guest lectures at your school. Create a schedule of sessions throughout the school year, covering multiple careers, industries, and educational paths. These sessions can be held during lunch breaks, after-school hours, or incorporated into existing career-focused classes. 

During these interactive sessions, please encourage students to ask questions about the speakers’ career journeys, the challenges they faced, and advice they have for aspiring professionals. Hearing real-life experiences and insights from many industry experts can be immensely impactful for students and provide them with realistic views of their dream careers. 

Keys to Your Future: College and Career Readiness 

The course aims to equip students with the necessary skills to navigate toward a fulfilling college experience and a successful career. Through interactive real-world scenarios, students explore lessons on college exploration, financial literacy, career readiness, and personal development. 

College Exploration

College Exploration – assists students in researching and identifying colleges that align with their interests, career goals, and academic strengths. It also covers the application process, financial aid options, and scholarship opportunities, helping students develop well-informed strategies for pursuing higher education. 

Financial Literacy- equips students with essential financial skills, including budgeting, managing student loans, and building credit responsibly. Students learn how to make informed financial decisions, avoid common pitfalls, and plan for their financial future, ensuring they are financially savvy as they embark on their college and career journeys. 

Career Readiness

Career Readiness- designed to help students explore potential career paths and develop the skills needed to thrive in the workplace. They also learn about resume building, interview preparation, and networking strategies. 

Personal Development

Personal Development – emphasizes self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and goal setting to empower students to overcome challenges and maximize their potential. Students are encouraged to explore their strengths, weaknesses, and growth mindset. 

Benefits of Career Exploration

Career exploration offers a plethora of advantages that extend beyond simply identifying a suitable profession.

Boosting Confidence

By understanding potential career paths, students gain a sense of direction. This knowledge empowers them, bolstering their confidence. As they navigate the realm of potential professions, they start recognizing their worth and the value they could bring to various roles.

Academic and Career Alignment

One of the major pitfalls students often face is pursuing an educational pathway that doesn’t align with their career aspirations. Career exploration allows students to tailor their academic choices, ensuring they’re on the right track from the start. This alignment not only streamlines their journey but also maximizes the return on their educational investment.

Reducing Future Job Dissatisfaction

Making uninformed career choices can lead to job dissatisfaction in the future. By researching and understanding different professions early on, students are more likely to choose careers that resonate with their passions and strengths. This proactive approach can drastically reduce the likelihood of mid-career crises or frequent job switches later in life.

Empowering The Next Generation Through Career Exploration

Engaging high school students in relatable career exploration activities can significantly influence their future choices and aspirations. Two of EVERFI’s newer courses: Accounting Careers: Limitless Opportunities and Data Science Foundations expose high school students to the world of opportunities that exist within these career fields. By providing hands-on experiences, career inventories, mock interviews, and insights from industry professionals, we empower our students to make informed decisions about their future paths. These activities foster self-awareness and encourage curiosity, determination, and a sense of purpose as they embark on their exciting journey of self-discovery and career exploration as educators. Let’s continue to inspire and support our students as they explore the endless possibilities that lie ahead in their professional lives.

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8 Free Career Exploration Activities For High School Students

WhatToGetMy Instructional Article

We’ve all been there. Thinking about jobs and careers, our potentials, opportunities, and goals. That’s why we understand young people who are trying to find themselves. As teachers, you can be a huge part of your students’ self-identification. You can help them find their calling and guide them through career paths. All you need are free career exploration activities for high school students to get you started.

Career exploration should start in elementary school. Kids need to learn about lots of different options that are available. However, we’ll discuss only activities for high schoolers. This period is often a turning point in life because you need to choose one path that you’ll follow. Once kids reach college, they might change their minds, so it becomes even more important that they know all of the options ahead.

Before we get to the article, let’s just note a few things:

• A lot of students reach high school and still don’t know what to do in life. That’s completely normal because they’re just confused teens. You need to help them realize their potential and define life goals.
• If the students make up their minds before going to college or entering the job market, they’ll have a much easier time facing societal expectations.
• Students’ list of possible career options is often limited by encounters through family and friends and exposure to the media. That’s why schools should introduce children to a wide variety of career options, to expand their horizons.
• Follow changes in the job market because, with the increasing pace of technology, there are a lot more job options available. Kids need to have all the information before making a decision.

What is career exploration?

Table of Contents

Simply put, this is the process of learning about modern job opportunities and how can kids pursue them. Choosing a career path is an essential part of growing up, so naturally, schools have an important role in guiding the children through.

Having quality career exploration lesson plans for high school students can help the students find what jobs are available upon graduation. They also learn about what education and work experience are needed for particular jobs. For example, if someone wants to become a chef, they can do it with or without a college education, but becoming a lawyer requires post-secondary education.

Career exploration activities for high school students can help with turning childhood dreams of “ What will I be when I grow up ” into reality. At least, these activities will put the students one step closer to reality. They give the children exposure to the working world and knowledge about how to successfully enter it. The job market is tough, but everyone needs to face it. The best way to help the students is to, as we already said, prepare them for the challenges ahead and these activities can help you do that.

Where to start?

When you’re making lesson plans for career exploration there are lots of things you need to consider. First, you need to figure out your students’ preexisting knowledge about careers. High schoolers might know about some of the options but they might be still confused about how the job market works and what approaches are efficient. Most people don’t have the chance to fulfill their potential, but you can give your students a head start, so they have better opportunities.

Career preparation lesson plans for high school students should be divided into four main steps: research, evaluation, discussion, and decision. These “phases” can last as long as you think it’s necessary. In the research phase, you’d help your students find all potential career options. Include “traditional” careers such as lawyer, accountant, doctor, construction worker, etc. You should also consider modern career options like a software developer or social media strategist.

After you make a list of popular and common careers (with a few unusual options too) have kids think about what seems interesting for them. Then they should make a list of specific careers and find out everything they can about them. Students usually use the internet for their research but you can also organize introductions with professionals in your area.

The evaluation phase should consist of analyzes of the research results. Students need to get a deeper understanding of their job options. They also need to figure out whether this particular career is a good fit for them. Can they meet the requirements for certain professions and can they even picture themselves working in those fields? What are their academic and social strengths? What subjects interest them the most? After they get vague answers to these questions you can move on to group discussions.

During discussions encourage students to talk with each other about what they’ve learned so far and what interests them the most. Getting insight from peers can be very helpful. Students can learn something new or find out whether they have a mutual career interest. They can also disagree, which can just spark constructive and interesting conversations.

Finally, students should decide what career they should pursue. This doesn’t have to be a definitive decision but it’s surely helpful to have a clue about what directions you should follow.

Volunteering

One good career project for high school students can be engaging in community service groups. Volunteering, helping others, and other   generosity activities will help the students feel better and also develop the necessary skills for career improvement. Critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills are needed for a lot of jobs, so encourage your students to participate in community groups whenever they have more free time. Volunteering will expand their horizons and boost their college applications!

Career camps

Before we suggest some classroom career development activities for college students , we’d just like to mention career camps. They’re not just for middle schoolers, because high school students benefit a lot from them. They can explore lots of summer classes such as arts, science, fitness, engineering, etc. If you have some very indecisive students, be sure to recommend summer camps that explore career options.

Another summer commitment that can help your students decide future careers are internship programs. Help them choose a field and mentor so they can spend a couple of weeks in the summer working in museums, sports venues, offices, labs, etc.

School activities

You can incorporate lots of career exploration activities for high school students in your regular lessons. We’ll give you some ideas that you can adapt to fit your teaching style and dynamics in the classroom.

Improving study habits

Help students to evaluate personal study habits with the “Study habits checklist” you can find online with just a couple of clicks. The goal of this activity is to have students discuss their strengths and weaknesses, so they can figure out what can be improved.

Before students complete the “Study habits checklist” worksheet, explain each statement on the list. This and lots of other career worksheets for high school students can be found online with ease. After students complete the checklist, discuss what skills can be improved and the ways to do it. At the end of the activity, each student should make a plan on the short-term goals regarding his/her study habits.

Daydreaming

Spark the conversation by asking additional questions like “Does your fantasy job fit your preferred lifestyle?” You can also form groups of students with similar career interests, so they’ll have more topics to talk about.

Employment in my community

Students should research local businesses with yellow pages and mobile phones or by using the internet. Divide the class into groups and give each group one business category to research (health care, transportation, construction, law firms, communication, agriculture, food service, and manufacturing. Make this project last for a couple of days, so students can prepare graphs and presentations.

The purpose of this activity is not only to learn how to collect information but to use the results of each group to discuss employment opportunities in your community. Discuss what category has the most/least business, what are the reasons for disparities, does location affect business, etc.

Is it worth the investment

The questions should be answered with precision. For example, when students compare the costs of community college and well-known universities, they need to include all the fees, possibilities for a scholarship, cost of transportation, and other things besides the tuition.

Ask students to create both a written report and a presentation for the class. Give them enough time to complete this assignment, so you can be sure they’ve done proper research. After they’ve presented the results, mix the groups to discuss the subject.

Job readiness activities

Besides the basic career exploration, you can engage in other activities to boost the students’ preparation for the job market. For example, these fun college readiness activities for high school students are great for improving “soft skills” necessary in today’s world. We’ll give you just two examples. You can check out more in the article   Leadership skills for students .

Explain the skills

Learn about the importance of soft skills by creating good and bad examples with your students. Write 20 soft skills on the board and assign one to each kid. They need to research the skill to understand the meaning. Afterward, help them to give an example of how those skills appear in real life. Remember to model both positive and negative examples.

Time-management challenge

Organizing your time efficiently will help you get things done faster. You’ll be more productive with less effort. The key to proper time-management is learning to prioritize tasks. Try this simple challenge in your regular lessons because it won’t take more than 15 minutes.

Make a list of tasks, assigning a point value to each activity. Divide the students into groups and instruct them to collect as many points as possible for 10 minutes. The activities can be various (doing 20 squats=5 points, signing your name=2 points), just make sure there are a lot of them.

After 10 minutes, discuss the results of each group. Go through the students’ decision-making process about what tasks should be done first, how should they do it, etc. This activity will help your students the importance of time management but also, they’ll improve critical thinking and communication skills.

We hope that these free career exploration activities for high school students will inspire you to try them in your classroom. Remember that teachers have an important role in the development of their students, so do your best to guide them. If some students lack motivation, give them encouragement with these   motivational activities for students .

01 HOUR 17 MINUTES

ESTIMATED TIME DESIGNING AND UPLOADING THIS ARTICLE

07 HOURS 15 MINUTES

ESTIMATED TIME RESEARCHING AND WRITING THIS ARTICLE

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Home | Blog | Career Exploration for Students: 5 Activities You Can Use Today

Career Exploration for Students: 5 Activities You Can Use Today

Why Is Career Exploration Important?

Career exploration for students is the process of discovering, learning about, and evaluating career opportunities based on students’ interests and values. These should be fun, informative experiences as students learn more about themselves and get excited about what their futures hold.   

Exploring future employment options in middle and high school helps students make connections between the skills they’re learning in school and careers they may pursue in the future. Career exploration also exposes students to a variety of potential job opportunities, giving them a better understanding of what’s available to them and what career path makes the most sense for their specific skills and interests.

Where Is Career Exploration Taught?

Career exploration can be taught in both middle and high school as part of career exploration classes, Career and Technical Student Organizations ( CTSO s ) , and Career and Technical Education ( CTE ) classes. Starting in middle school can set students up for success in high school by helping them decide which CTE classes to take and identify potential jobs t hat relate to the career s they’re interested in . In high school, students can continue to grow their knowledge about the ir chosen career path with part-time jobs, internships, and apprenticeships.    

5 Career Exploration Activities To Get Started

1. take time to research.

Research projects give students the opportunity to learn where to find information on various careers while learning about those careers. What’s more, research skills are important. Being able to identify, collect, and evaluate information will benefit students in school, college, and the workplace. Create a list of careers for students to choose from by looking at industry in your area, your high school’s CTE options, and what careers your local post-secondary school prepares students for. You can also ask your high school counselor for a list or search for a trending careers list online.   

Specify the information your students need to find for their chosen careers. You can have them look up the wage, typical job tasks, education requirements, job outlook, and key skills needed. Be sure to suggest a few valuable resources, like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics .   

Once students finish researching, have them present their findings to the class.  

2. Use Your Community

Turning to your community for career exploration activities gives students the chance to learn more about their local industry and available jobs. Company tours and interviews with local professionals get students out of the classroom and into local busine sses. Individual or group guest speakers offer options for engaging classroom presentations of various industry opportunities. You could even invite a group of post-secondary instructors to discuss their courses . Encourage engagement by having students prepare questions ahead of time .  

3. Incorporate Soft Skills

From teamwork to self-confidence, workers with soft skills help to create an effective and peaceful work environment. These are excellent skills to teach alongside career exploration for students as these skills are necessary to obtain and keep a job in any career path. Assign group work, reflection activities, and roleplay projects to build students’ skills in teamwork, critical thinking, and self-confidence.  

Check out our soft skills implementation page for an implementation guide, free posters, and information on the tools you can use to bring soft skills to your classroom.  

4. Create CTSO Connections

CTSO programs , such as B PA and DECA , help students develop interpersonal relationships, build teamwork and leadership skills, and set goals. Students who participate in CTSOs have higher levels of academic engage ment and motivat ion , civic engage ment , career self-efficacy, and employability skills. CTSOs feature career exploration lessons and handouts as well as competitive events that incorporate this topic , such as FCCLA’s Career Investigation STAR Event and HOSA’s Health Career Exploration Event .  

5. Work With Hands-On Learning Tools

Hands-on learning tools attract and keep students’ attention. These tools let students experience the job in the classroom. We offer a variety of experiential learning aids that are excellent for career exploration for students , such as our Childcare Center Design Kit , RealCare ™ Geriatric Simulator , Swine Litter Processing Simulators , Measurement Math Training Kit , and more.  

Career exploration packages

Looking to start or refresh a career exploration program? Featuring hands-on learning aids and lessons curated specifically for career exploration, our career exploration packages address a variety of jobs within agriculture, health science, and skilled trades.

Looking for more resources on teaching career exploration for students? We recommend:  

• Visiting our  career exploration implementation page for free career exploration lesson plans, blogs about teaching, access to downloadable career posters, and more  
• Checking out the Association for Career and Technical Education’s  paper on middle school career exploration  
• Watching our on-demand webinar, “ Career Exploration Activities for Middle and High School Classrooms “  

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High school students often tire of being asked, “What are your career plans?” Some students have no idea how to answer the question. Others may give a rote answer just to stop the questions. There are actually so many career choices available that high school students can pursue that they need direction in order to discover their own interests and skills. They may discover that opportunities are available they never even thought of before. Here are just a few suggestions that may help in career research for high school students.

Brainstorming

This may seem like a simple suggestion, but it is a good first step. Students should make a list of things they like and do not like to do and classes they like and do not like. For example, do they like history class but hate math class or vice versa? Do they like to work in groups or do they prefer to work alone? Do they like to work indoors or outdoors?

Assessment tests

There a variety of assessment tests that may be administered at high schools. If not, they can be found online. Some examples are:

• Myer-Briggs Test:  This analyzes personality characteristics and how a person interacts with people or if they prefer not to interact with people at all.
• Strong Interest Inventory:  This helps students who are having trouble identifying their interests and helps focus on what a student truly enjoys doing.
• Self-Directed Search:  This test focuses on identifying skills and interests.
• Skill Scan Test:  This focuses on seven specific skills and assists a student in determining which skills they have or want to develop.

Assessment tests are just stepping stones to identifying potential careers. Results should not be used to direct a person to or away from a specific career but should be used only as tools to help identify career choices.

Research potential careers

A few specific careers can be identified in order to pursue career research for high school students. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes an Occupational Outlook Handbook which provides detailed information for every possible job including:

• Job description
• Specific employers or types of employers
• Salary ranges
• Expected job growth over the next few years
• Educational requirements
• Where the jobs are located

Informational interviews

Students may know or can be introduced to someone who works in a job the student is interested in pursuing as a career. Guiding the student to develop interview questions of the professional person can be helpful. Students can get real answers to their career questions from people who actually work every day in the career of interest. Students can be guided to ask questions such as:

• How did the person train for the job?
• What does the person like best about the job?
• What does the person dislike about the job?
• What has the person learned that they wish they had known before pursuing the career?
• What advice does the professional have concerning what the student should and should not do in pursuit of the career?

Job shadowing

Some schools have job shadowing programs that give students the opportunity of actually working with a professional in the career of the student’s choice. The student arranges to spend several hours with the professional to “shadow” them and see exactly what they do on a daily basis.

If the school does not have a shadowing program established students can contact the local Chamber of Commerce for business directories and suggestions of professionals who may be contacted. Students can then set up individual job shadowing experiences.

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Career Exploration for High School Students — 3 Steps to Follow

Paige buttels.

“What do you want to do when you grow up?” is the age-old question many adults ask children as soon as they can talk and show interest in certain toys. This question tends to turn into “What are you going to major in?” when they get into high school.

In my experience as a high school counselor I’ve found that, although well-intentioned, these questions can be very daunting to students who are unsure of their career interests. They can cause students to feel stressed, nervous and inadequate compared to their peers — especially if they perceive that their peers have it all figured out.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect children to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives — many adults don’t even know that! However, it is both reasonable and responsible to encourage and guide students in this space, providing the tools and steps to engage in self-reflection, research and exploration opportunities.

Following these guided career exploration steps will expand students’ understanding of the world of work, teach them how to conduct career research and better understand details about jobs within various career fields. ( Note: These steps align with the Illinois Postsecondary and Career Expectations Standards but should be helpful to high school students anywhere. Your own state Board of Education and your student's high school guidance counseling department most likely offer similar resources.)

1. Self-Reflection

Students who are undecided about their career interests should take a career cluster inventory or career interest survey to identify one or two career fields that would be a good fit. Career cluster inventories are available on many high school, college career services and state education websites.

Many careers within a career cluster have similar skills, abilities and values. For example, perhaps a student loves music. To explore potential career options outside of music performance, that student could research the arts, audio/visual technology and communications cluster . Doing so may encourage them to consider careers in audio engineering, hospitality, music production, graphic design or telecommunications.

Additionally, students should discuss the following questions with trusted adults such as teachers, parents, school counselors, coaches or faith leaders in order to better understand their own skills, interests and strengths.

• What type of difference do you want to make in the world?
• What activities do you lose track of time doing because you enjoy them so much?
• Would you prefer to work with your hands, objects, data, people or ideas?

2. Career Research

Once students have a sense of a few career paths they might be interested in, they should use credible sources such as the ones listed below to learn more about each career.

• O*Net and O*Net Career : Explore job statistics by career cluster
• Bureau of Labor Statistics : Explore job data such as median pay and job outlook
• Careeronestop.org : Watch short videos to get overviews of different careers
• Illinois Career Information System : Watch short videos to get overviews of different careers

Specifically, students should look up the following information about each career that they’re interested in:

• Required preparation, education and licensing
• Typical daily activities, values and skills required
• Labor statistics, such as the projected job outlook, to determine if there are likely to be jobs in that field available in the future

Students should discuss their findings with their parents and/or school counselor to help determine if the careers under consideration are a good personal fit. They should also talk to their family about the affordability of each career, keeping in mind the expected entry-level salary and anticipated student loan debt associated with each.

3. Planning and Exploration

Next, students should find ways to further explore their career interests by gaining hands-on experience and getting to know people who actually have those careers.

Students can do this by:

• Conducting informational interviews (virtually or in person)
• Job shadowing to see what a day (or morning/afternoon) on the job looks like
• Touring a facility to get a sense of the workplace environment
• Participating in activities related to their career interests (i.e, summer camps, clubs, workshops, etc.)

At the same time, students should take the appropriate steps (consulting their school counselor as needed) to plan for their future career. These steps include:

• Selecting high school classes related to the future career, planning accordingly for college admissions within the major for the career field in mind
• Completing an internship or apprenticeship (some high schools offer this as a class)
• Applying for part-time jobs and performing community service within the career cluster in order to gain experience and a better understanding of the field

We know that adults spend the majority of their waking hours at work, which has a huge impact on both job and overall life satisfaction. With this in mind, it’s important to consider the value in selecting a career field that will bring contentment and spark joy. The outlined career exploration steps can be repeated as a students’ interests and experiences grow and change.

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High School Students Thrive as Researchers

Authentic exploratory research hones students’ investigation and analysis skills..

Posted April 1, 2024 | Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer

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This post is Part I in a series.

I got to speak with students at Laguna Beach High School (LBHS) recently when giving a career talk there. They kept asking me advanced questions about conducting studies, writing, and science, and they spoke with passion about their own research projects. I was taken aback by how much these high school teens sounded like my adult college students and peers. They kept mentioning “AER”, and I had to learn more.

LBHS’s Authentic Exploratory Research (AER) Program is an independent research course inspired by Palo Alto Unified School District’s Advanced Authentic Research Program. In AER, students are paired with adult mentors (such as LBUSD staff, industry experts, and academics) who assist the teens in researching their own big questions in fields of their choice. Students spend about 60 hours per semester on coursework that includes both instruction and working on each project itself.

No such courses were offered at LBHS when I graduated there back in 1990, and I wonder how much sooner I could have enjoyed my career as a researcher if I had gotten to participate in AER as a youth. Though the program was introduced in 2019 by Laguna Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) Superintendent Jason Viloria, Ed.D., Jun Shen is the passionate teacher and edtech coordinator who runs it. I had the pleasure of partnering with Shen for an interview series where we’ll first explore how AER works before hearing from students about their experiences with AER honing skills for future success. Students’ feedback (in interviews to follow) and Shen’s answers (which follow each question below) can help others implement such a program.

Jenny Grant Rankin: What were the biggest challenges to implementing a successful AER program, and how did you tackle them?

Jun Shen: The biggest ongoing challenge is to find the balance between respecting the students’ individual freedom in their projects on one hand, and on the other, closely managing the students so they’d make adequate progress. Tackling this is an iterative process. Through the last four years, I have tried many different methods like online journaling, different grading rubrics and requirements, different communication protocols, and it seems to be steadily getting better.

JGR: When pairing students with adult mentors, how do you find and secure mentors who are appropriate for students' different interests?

JS: We have a dedicated Mentor Coordinator for AER, at first the ASB Director Jennifer Lundblad, then our District’s Career Education Coordinator Kellee Shearer. After students register for AER in March, we interview them in April and May to get a good feel for their field of interest, and Kellee spends the summer finding them mentors.

JGR: When speaking to your students about AER, I was impressed by the sophistication with which they discussed their studies. What was the most powerful strategy you used to help high schoolers understand research concepts that are hard for even college students to grasp?

JS: Most AER students are definitely wise beyond their years but I can’t claim credit for this one. It’s definitely a team effort, with a splash of selection bias thrown in. Most (though not all) students who take on the challenge of AER are already high-performing and highly-motivated students; thus, they’ve already learned a lot of the research and analysis skills in some of their other upper-level classes. In addition to that, we have a full-time Library Media Specialist, first Stephanie Gamache then Glen Warren, who works with the students to help them find what they need. Their mentor is another obviously valuable asset. As for me, I do very little whole-group, one-size-fits-all instruction about research and data analysis. Most of the students’ research methodologies are created individually with my advice.

JGR: What can you tell educators who are nervous about giving students so much independence and freedom in a course?

JS: First, be curious. If you love learning new things, then you’ll have a great time with your students as you explore some obscure topics together. The more you communicate that you’re personally invested in their study, the harder they will work with you. Second, it won’t be perfect your first year and that’s OK. Looking back, my first year running AER was rather lackluster, with a sizable portion of students dropping out or barely finishing their projects. Every year we learn our lessons and improve the course for the following year. Third, don’t reinvent the wheel. We based our program on Palo Alto USD’s program and, year after year, have modified it to suit our culture and needs. Start with their or our curriculum and see where it leads you.

JGR: What else should readers know about AER?

JS: It’s one of the highlights of my career. I’ve always been that kid who watched as many Discovery Channel Documentaries as I could because I loved learning about everything. I never thought that I’d get to geek out with kids about Aerospace Engineering and Fashion Design in a high school teaching job!

I’ve always been that kid, too. It’s heartwarming to learn how AER can be as rewarding for staff as it is for students, who we’ll hear from next. To continue reading, look for Part II.

Jenny Grant Rankin, Ph.D., is a Fulbright Specialist for the U.S. Department of State.

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7-Week SSP & 2-Week Pre-College Program are still accepting applications until April 10, or earlier if all course waitlists are full. 4-Week SSP Application is closed.

Celebrating 150 years of Harvard Summer School. Learn about our history.

Visiting College Students

The summer can be an excellent time to earn credit. You can reduce your mental load throughout the year or allow yourself to focus on a course requirement without other school-year distractions. You could also take a course that could help you figure out a career path or prepare for the job market.

Flexible online and on-campus course formats to fit your life.

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The instruction at Harvard is world-class. [My professors] worked diligently to unlock my potential and provide guidance tailored to my individual path. Interacting and learning together with other truly engaged students in the Harvard space is an unforgettable lifetime experience to be cherished.

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At Harvard Summer School, we bring together expert faculty and motivated learners from high school to adulthood during the summer months.

Instructing hundreds of courses in over 60 subjects, our faculty inspire students to choose their college major, find new direction in their careers, earn credit for their degree program, or find their confidence in higher education.

Our faculty are educators, practitioners, and scholars. Although their professional experiences differ, faculty share a passion for educating Harvard Summer School students of all ages to help them achieve their academic goals.

Course Experience

We understand that you need flexible attendance options to balance school with setting yourself up for success in the future.

Harvard Summer School Courses are intensive, 4- or 8-credit courses condensed over 3-, 4-, or 7-weeks.

Three participation options let you pick what fits into your summer:

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Live on Campus or Study Online

If you register for an on-campus course and want to live in Harvard’s dorms, we offer housing for visiting college students.

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Both virtual and in-person activities are offered to Harvard Summer School students to meet other students and get the most out of their summer.

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You can choose between 400+ courses at Harvard Summer School. We have undergraduate and graduate courses offered for-credit or non-credit. If you plan to transfer credit to another institution, please talk with your home institution to understand if/how your course will transfer.

These courses are some of the most popular with college students:

• CHEM: Intensive Organic Chemistry
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• CSCI: Intensive Introduction to Computer Science
• CSCI: Introduction to Computer Science with Python
• ECON: Economics of Innovation
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• GOVT: The Political Economy of Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities
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• MGMT: Leadership
• MGMT: Project Management
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• PYSC: The Psychology of Close Relationships

Explore Career Paths

Harvard Summer School offers specially designed courses where you can study a subject of interest while gaining insight from industry professionals on what a career might be like. These Career Pathway courses are small, for-credit classes designed to help you get a fresh perspective on a field you may want to pursue. In each course, you will explore an academic topic in depth while working on projects that are mirrored in the real world.

Components include:

• In-class guests who will advise students and provide insights on their own career paths.
• Self-reflection exercises on skills, interests, and future goals they’ve identified.

At the end of a course, students will come away energized about potential career paths, and will have built valuable team-building and leadership skills.

Career Pathways Courses

• Basic Journalism in the Digital Age
• Becoming a Brain Scientist: Neuroscience and Psychology Research
• Beginning Screenwriting
• Entrepreneurship from the Perspective of Business and IP Law
• Introduction to Immunology with Laboratory Techniques
• Problem Solving and Project Design

Summer Seminars at Harvard Summer School

Summer Seminars at Harvard Summer School give undergraduate students and advanced high school students unique opportunities and personal faculty instruction that’s hard to find on a large campus.

Inspired by Harvard’s renowned freshman seminars that get students acclimated and engaged in campus life, 7-week Summer Seminars give both Harvard and visiting students the unique chance to study with us in a small-group format.

The benefits you’ll enjoy during Summer Seminars include:

Small Class Sizes

Summer Seminars are limited to 15 students each to keep class sizes small and maximize your learning experience. This small class size promotes open and dynamic discussion, peer study groups, in-class presentations, and equal opportunity participation in the classroom.

Close Faculty Interaction

Each Summer Seminar is taught by a Harvard affiliate and offers excellent opportunities for personal guidance and advising. Throughout the seminar, students can consult with and learn from Harvard instructors in a small-group or one-to-one format that lets them dig deep into a subject and build valuable expertise.

Independent Research Opportunities

Learn the researching and writing skills that will let you rise to the top of your undergraduate class or prepare you for graduate school. Your Summer Seminar instructor will give you the frameworks and advice needed to complete a final research project in your area of study. Summer Seminars are available for undergraduate credits only.

Summer 2024 Seminars

Human Evolution View More

Apply scientific methods to the questions of who humans are, where we came from, and why we do the things we do. Use archaeological, primatological, physiological, fossil, technological, genetic, and ethnographic evidence in service to understanding the human story in deep time, tracking our evolution from seven million years ago until the end of the last ice age.

Register for Human Evolution

The Psychology of Cults View More

Explore the psychological mechanisms that enable cults to form and to take human behavior to extremes. You will examine case studies of different cults (such as Reverend Moon of the Unification Church and David Koresh of the Branch Davidians) to discover how psychological research can shed light on cult behavior, and how cult behavior can shed light on our everyday psychology.

Register for The Psychology of Cults

A Short Tour of the Universe Guided by Einstein and Others View More

This course discusses what we understand of the universe, guided by those who have shaped our understanding. Each week, we use as a springboard one or more key papers by Einstein, Penrose, Hawking, Guth, and others, and discuss the main ideas in them. All the background information needed to understand these ideas is provided in detail.

Register for A Short Tour of the Universe Guided by Einstein and Others

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The Charger Blog

Solar Eclipse Offers Unique Research and Learning Opportunities for Chargers

Whether they are headed to New York or Texas to launch weather balloons or sharing their passion for research on campus, teams of students and faculty members are excited for the solar eclipse. It promises to be an extraordinary opportunity to take their research to new heights and, even, to test a new weather balloon prototype.

April 4, 2024

By Renee Chmiel, Office of Marketing and Communications

For Erik Parker ’24, this month’s eclipse promises to be particularly memorable. Not only will he have the opportunity to witness a total solar eclipse, he will be traveling with fellow researchers to witness it – and to learn as much as they can from it.

Parker is part of a team of Chargers who will be taking full advantage of the unique and important research opportunities the eclipse will offer. He will be viewing the eclipse from Rochester, NY, where he and his fellow researchers will launch 30 weather balloons, one every hour, before, during, and after the eclipse.

For Parker, an electrical and computer engineering major , this is not his first time traveling to conduct research during an eclipse. He visited Junction, Texas, this past fall with his classmates and faculty mentors, where they also launched 30 weather balloons during the annular solar eclipse. He describes it as a challenging and exhilarating experience, as he helped the group navigate challenges such as software problems. They were able to problem solve together to get everything working, and the trip was so successful that they’ll be doing similar work during this month’s total eclipse.

“When I first committed to the University for electrical and computer engineering, I never imagined that I would be launching weather balloons,” he said. “Through this project, I have learned a tremendous amount about the systems that make weather predictions possible, among the endless other things large balloons are used for. For me, it's all about the learning process of applying skills I already have and learning new ones from others.”

Solar eclipses are indeed important events for researchers. Because the moon blocks the sun during what are typically daylight hours, the reduced solar radiation on the earth could cause local and widespread atmospheric changes. The University’s research teams endeavor to measure those possible changes, using weather balloons with sensors and monitors to measure ambient pressure, ozone level, moisture content, and temperature. They’ll be launching them from the ground and flying them up more than 100,000 feet.

Parker is one of nearly a dozen students who will be traveling to study the eclipse. He and his teammates in New York will be conducting research that promises to generate important data on the ambient weather conditions during the eclipse, including any possible atmospheric gravity wave caused by the eclipse.

John Kelley , an associate lab supervisor, will lead the team of students in Rochester, where they will collaborate with researchers at SUNY Brockport. Their work is part of a “super line” study, which also includes researchers at SUNY Oswego and SUNY Albany, as the launch locations of the three teams will be close to a line along the totality path of the eclipse.

Chong Qiu, Ph. D. , associate professor of chemistry and one of the students’ mentors, notes that this “super line” study could offer a unique geographic scale in the data sets when compared to previous studies. He’s excited about what the researchers could learn from studying the eclipse, as well as the opportunities this work has been creating for students.

“The team members have gone through a series of theoretical and hands-on training, covering a broad collection of areas, including physics, chemistry, meteorology, engineering, and earth sciences,” explains Dr. Qiu. “They also had the opportunity to practice their learning in real-world settings and have learned more within the non-ideal conditions, such as planning ahead, trouble-shooting on the spot, and problem solving with limited resources and time.”

The researchers have been charging up for the eclipse, especially since returning from spring break. They’re still reviewing data from the first trip to Texas, and they’ve been conducting practice balloon launches to make sure they and their equipment are ready to go.

Dr. Qiu will be returning to Texas during the eclipse, where he’ll be leading a team of students to continue their research. They will be monitoring the ozone level with a device carried by a new prototype of an altitude-controlled weather balloon. It was developed by a multi-disciplinary team of five mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering students under the mentorship of Joseph Levert, Ph.D. , an associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering. They hope to determine the field performances of the new weather balloon and to monitor any ozone changes during the eclipse.

A team will also be on campus during the eclipse, where they will offer educational activities and demonstrations to their fellow Chargers. Nathan Seifert, Ph.D. , an assistant professor of chemistry, is hosting an event during which he will demonstrate weather ballooning. They will collaborate with the University’s Astronomy Club , which will offer observation activities with telescopes. Although Connecticut is not in the total eclipse path, Dr. Qiu says Chargers can still expect to see something remarkable.

“Within the New Haven area, we are expecting to see a partial solar eclipse of up to 90 percent cover,” he said.

For Grace Teall ’24 M.S., a candidate in the University’s graduate program in chemistry , being a part of this research has been exciting and rewarding. She’s looking forward to studying a second eclipse during her final academic year as a Charger.

“This opportunity has been such a great experience,” she said. “I have learned so much about how weather data are collected and recorded. This has provided a great opportunity to get hands-on experience on how to see how weather data such as temperature, air pressure, and wind patterns are collected at much higher altitudes in the atmosphere. I cannot wait to see the results of the data we collect to see how the eclipse might affect these various parameters.”

The University has collaborated with researchers and teams at myriad universities, including Stanford University and St. Edward’s University. They’ve also received support from organizations such as the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project. Dr. Qiu says the seed research award he received from the Connecticut Space Grant Consortium in 2022 was particularly impactful to this work.

“My experience so far is that it takes a long time and a lot of forward thinking to build a program at its current level,” he said. “In the end, all the student participants have been very happy with their experience, so I think all the work we put in is well worth it!”

This month’s eclipse will be the last total solar eclipse that will be observable within the continental U.S. until 2045. For Kiefer Neumann ’23, ’24 M.S., getting to study two eclipses under the mentorship of Dr. Qiu has not only been fascinating, it has also been a cornerstone of his research as a candidate in the University’s graduate program in mechanical engineering.

“During my trip to Texas in the fall for my graduate thesis, I collected ozone data via high-altitude weather balloons to study the impact to solar eclipses on ozone concentration,” explains Neumann, who also earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University. “I have been working with Dr. Qiu for almost two years, and it has been an invaluable experience. His determination and passion for research has taught me lessons in project management and problem solving.”

For Parker, the electrical and computer engineering major, the challenges he faced when preparing to launch the weather balloons in Texas this fall were eclipsed by the rewarding opportunity he had to be a part of the research. He says it helped him to build his confidence as well as his teamwork and problem solving skills. His involvement in the project has prepared him for his next mission in New York. He can’t wait to see all that the teams are sure to learn and accomplish together as they take their research to new heights.

“Since I have the experience from going on the Texas trip, my focus has not been on launching traditional weather balloons,” he explains. “I have been able to provide some assistance for the capstone team going to Texas in regard to the electronics for their vent system. I've familiarized myself with the various systems that make the project possible so problem solving can be as efficient as possible. I anticipate everything will go smoothly for both the Rochester and Texas teams, but I will be ready to jump to action in the event that either team has trouble.”

Recent News

Healthcare Majors Benefit from Healthcare-Focused Career Fair

The University’s Career Development Center recently hosted a first-of-its-kind career expo focused on the field of healthcare. Students were grateful for the opportunity to explore career and internship opportunities in their field and to connect with industry professionals.

Fox61, Communication Department Hosted 100+ High School Students

The University’s third annual Media Day gave local high school students an opportunity to interact with professionals in the field while receiving an inside look at what it would be like to power their dreams as Chargers.

University Celebrates Members of Military and Veteran Community and Their Supporters

The Salute to Service Awards Ceremony recognized the accomplishments of student-veterans and military-affiliated students, as well as those who have gone above and beyond to support them. It brought together members of the University and local communities, as well as state and federal leaders, for an event focused on solidarity, support, and service.

Office of the Vice President for Research

Ovpr announces recipients of 2024 discovery and innovation awards.

The Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) is honoring 11 faculty and staff for their exceptional contributions to research, scholarship, and creative activity as part of the 2024 Discovery and Innovation Awards .

“ The winners represent the best and the brightest of our University of Iowa faculty and staff, who are making an impact across a range of disciplines,”  said Marty Scholtz, vice president for research. “Their research and scholarship enhance undergraduate and graduate education on campus, and their efforts to expand the frontiers of discovery betters our community, state, and world.”

The OVPR solicited nominations from across campus for the awards, which include: Scholar of the Year, Early Career Scholar of the Year, Leadership in Research, and awards that recognize achievement in communicating scholarship with public audiences, community engagement, arts and humanities, mentorship, research administration and safety. A campuswide event on April 30 will celebrate the winners.

Faculty Awards

Jun Wang , James E. Ashton Professor and interim departmental executive officer in the College of Engineering’s

 Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, is the 2024 Scholar of the Year . The award celebrates nationally recognized recent achievement in outstanding research, scholarship, and/or creative activities. 

Wang’s research centers on the development of novel remote sensing techniques to characterize aerosols and fires from space. He serves as the University of Iowa’s lead investigator on NASA’s TEMPO, Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring Pollution, which Time magazine named one of its best inventions of 2023. 

“Professor Wang's scholarly endeavors over the past two years stand out as a paradigm of excellence, serving as an exemplary model for both emerging and seasoned faculty members to aspire toward,” said Karim Abdel-Malek, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Iowa Technology Institute.

James Byrne , assistant professor of radiation oncology in the Carver College of Medicine ( CCOM ), is the 2024 Early Career Scholar of the Year . The award honors assistant professors who are currently involved in research, scholarship, and/or creative activity and show promise of making a significant contribution to their field. 

As a physician scientist, Byrne continues to care for patients while developing novel biomedical therapies for cancer, finding inspiration in everything from latte foam to tardigrades. In his first two years as faculty at the UI, he has earned more that $2.5M in external research funding, including a K08 award from the NIH.

“Dr. Byrne’s scientific creativity stems from both an active and curious mind as well as his ability to bridge diverse fields from engineering to biology to medicine,” said Michael Henry, professor and interim director of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center. “These interdisciplinary boundaries are where some of the most interesting and important work is happening today.”

Donna Santillan , research professor and director of the Division of Reproductive Science Research in the CCOM Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, received the Leadership in Research Award , which recognizes research and scholarly accomplishments throughout a career. 

While Santillan’s research has spanned across the field of reproductive science, she has a particular interest in the deadly diseases of pregnancy, including preeclampsia and its intergenerational effects. She designed and directs the Women’s Health Tissue Repository. Santillan’s work has been cited more than 2,700 times, and she has mentored 114 early career scientists and students, a testament to her expansive impact.

“Dr. Santillan has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to fostering the professional and personal development of trainees in research, including myself,” said Banu Gumusoglu, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology. “Her mentorship extends beyond the confines of traditional academic settings, touching the lives of many aspiring trainees from high school through residency, clinical fellowship, and faculty levels.”

Stephen Warren , professor of history and American studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), received the Distinguished Achievement in Publicly Engaged Research Award . The award recognizes an individual faculty member who has put addressing public needs and direct engagement with the public, in the service of improving quality of life through research, at the forefront of his or her academic activities.

A prolific scholar of Native American culture, Warren’s research has centered on the Shawnee people of Oklahoma for the past two decades. He has published four books and co-authored the most recent one , Replanting Cultures: Community-Engaged Scholarship in Indian Country, with Chief Benjamin Barnes of the Shawnee Tribe. 

“Over the last two decades, Professor Warren has established himself as a leading community-engaged scholar, and his achievements in research and publishing demonstrate that community engagement and strong scholarship are not mutually exclusive,” said Nick Benson, director of the Office of Community Engagement. “Professor Warren’s work serves as an inspiration for researchers at Iowa and nationally who seek not only to make a difference in academia, but also in our communities.”

Kaveh Akbar , associate professor of English in CLAS, received the Distinguished Achievement in Arts and Humanities Research Award . This award honors distinguished achievement in humanities scholarship and work in the creative, visual and performing arts. 

Akbar joined Iowa in 2022 to serve as the director of the English and creative writing major. In January, his new novel, Martyr!, was published to critical acclaim. Akbar previously published two prize-winning poetry collections and has served as poetry editor for The Nation  since 2021. 

“Akbar’s leadership in the profession and on campus continues: his transformative work in our department not only enriches the academic experiences of 700+ English and creative writing majors, but also enhances the profile of UI as ‘The Writing University,’” said Blaine Greteman, professor and departmental executive officer of the Department of English.

Cara Hamann , associate professor of epidemiology, received the Faculty Communicating ideas Award . This award recognizes excellence in communication about research and scholarship in the sciences and humanities and the study of creative, visual, and performing arts to a general audience directly or via print and electronic media.

Hamann has frequently shared her work on transportation issues, including teen driving, bike and scooter safety, and pedestrian safety, through peer-reviewed journals and extensive media outreach. Her recent op-ed, “The most deadly traffic policy you’ve never heard of leaves you vulnerable, too,” drew widespread attention to a legal loophole in crosswalk laws and appeared in more than 50 news outlets nationwide, including USA Today .

“Dr. Hamann’s work is not only academically rigorous but also accessible and impactful to a

wide audience,” said Diane Rohlman, associate dean for research in the College of Public Health. “Her ability to communicate with clarity, creativity, and passion coupled with her extensive media outreach, exemplifies how she utilizes multiple approaches to address transportation challenges impacting society.”

Bob McMurray , F. Wendell Miller Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Caroline Clay , assistant professor of acting in the Department of Theatre Arts, were recipients of the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) Distinguished Mentor Awards . The awards honors mentors’ dedication to making their students research experiences successful.

“I can’t imagine my research journey without Bob’s welcoming kindness, thriving lab community, and confident mentorship, and I am so deeply grateful for his impact on me,” said Hannah Franke, a psychology and linguistics major mentored by McMurray.

“I know I am far from the only student whose life has been impacted by Caroline Clay,” said Isabella Hohenadel, a second-year theatre arts major. “She deserves to be recognized of all of the wonderful work she does and how much she cares about us as students. I cannot think of anyone more deserving of recognition than her.”

Staff Awards

Angie Robertson , department administrator for CCOM’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, received the Distinguished Research Administrator Award . The award recognizes staff members who performed exceptional service in support of research at the UI by exploring funding opportunities, assisting in grant proposal preparation, submission, post-award administration, and operational support. 

In addition to overseeing every aspect of daily operations for the department, Robertson manages nearly 100 research grants for the department and three longstanding NIH T32 training grants. 

“Angie plays a leading role in our department office, inspiring us to achieve all aspects of our missions ,” said Li Wu, professor and department chair. “She is innovative, collaborative, accountable, and respectful  in her daily work. She exceeds any expectations and sets a great example for staff members in the department.”

Min Zhu , research specialist in the Iowa Institute for Oral Health Research (IIOHR) within the College of Dentistry, received the Distinguished Research Professional Award . The award recognizes staff members who performed exceptional service in support of research at the UI by conducting experiments, collecting, and analyzing results and performing operational duties associated with a laboratory or research program. 

Zhu has worked as a lab bench scientist in the College of Dentistry since 2006, executing experimental work for grants and other research, working closely with IIOHR faculty members, overseeing lab maintenance and environmental health and safety efforts. 

“Beyond her research skills, Dr. Zhu has been an exceptional mentor and educator for my students and other junior researchers,” said Liu Hong, professor of prosthodontics. “Her kindness and willingness to share her knowledge have made her a beloved figure among them.”

Curtis Iberg , manager of sterilization services in the College of Dentistry, received the Innovation in Safety Award, which celebrates exceptional and ground-breaking innovations that advance safety at the UI. Iberg led a major renovation of the College of Dentistry’s instrument processing and sterilization area, with the aim of encouraging better workflow and support for future growth. 

“His innovations in workspace are a valuable asset to the greater University and demonstrates that the most important people to be involved in a space renovation are those that use the area because they can see how the facility can better function and how it can be designed for future needs,” said Kecia Leary, associate dean of clinics.

Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

At michigan state university, frib professorial assistant earns goldwater scholarship.

Aaron Philip, a professorial assistant at FRIB, has earned a  Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship , becoming Michigan State University’s fifty-fifth Goldwater Scholar.

The Goldwater Foundation seeks sophomores and juniors committed to a research career in STEM fields with the potential for significant future contribution in their chosen field. The award provides $7,500 per year in funding for 51 students for undergraduate tuition and living expenses.

For the 2024 Goldwater Scholarship competition, 1,353 undergraduates were nominated by 446 institutions. Philip was among 438 scholars selected. The funding for the award is a collaboration between the U.S. Congress and the Department of Defense’s National Defense Education Program.

Philip is a second-year Michigan State University student from Los Alamos, New Mexico studying Physics and Advanced Mathematics in the College of Natural Science. He is also a member of the Honors College.

“I am honored and humbled to join the ranks of Spartan Goldwater Scholars. I share this recognition with my professors, research mentors, fellow students, and family who have all supported me and cultivated my passion to pursue a career in physics research,” Philip said. “Specifically, I would like to thank my research mentors over the past few years for their guidance, encouragement, and mentorship: Drs. Pablo Giuliani, Kyle Godbey, Witek Nazarewicz, Odelia Schwartz, Jianliang Qian, and Benjamin Nebgen.”

Philip is passionate about pursuing a career in research addressing micro-scale physics problems using analytic approaches, high performance computing, and AI. He has contributed to diverse research projects through his roles as a professorial assistant at FRIB, a Discovering America researcher with MSU’s Math Department, a student intern at the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and as a Computer Science Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student at the University of Miami.

“Aaron joined our nuclear theory research group at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at Michigan State University in August 2022 as an undergraduate research assistant. An incoming first-year undergraduate student, he came extremely well prepared to directly work in forefront research and quickly managed to get acquainted with the necessary tools and background knowledge,” Kyle Godbey, a research assistant professor at FRIB, and Witold Nazarewicz, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Physics and chief scientist at FRIB, said.

“During the course of his work, Aaron was able to reach a level of mastery of theoretical and computational methods on par with the current experts in the field. We consider ourselves to be incredibly lucky to have Aaron as a member of our research group and we have no doubt that he will go on to have a successful research career,” Godbey and Nazarewicz said.

“Aaron’s research at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams has been exemplary, and his mentorship activities embody the values of care and support that empower excellence at the MSU Honors College. We congratulate Aaron on being named a Goldwater Scholar,” Long said.

Philip has written two papers and presented at various conferences, including MSU’s Mathematics and Data Science Conferences, the University of Miami’s Computer Science REU Poster Presentation, and a LANL Lab Directed Research and Development Review. He also serves as a student tutor through the Mathematics Learning Center and at East Lansing High School.

“Congratulations to Aaron on this esteemed achievement,” said FRIB Laboratory Director Thomas Glasmacher. “Being named a Goldwater Scholar is a testament to Aaron’s dedication and outstanding efforts. We are so proud he is furthering his research pursuits at FRIB and honored to be part of his journey as he prepares to become a leader in our field.”

Read the original article on the  MSUToday website .

Michigan State University operates the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams as a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC), supporting the mission of the DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics.