‘Career Cafe’ program at GHS offers students a glimpse at various occupations
Doug Hawkins of Shelter Insurance discusses the insurance business with a group of Gainesville High School students during a Career Cafe session last school year. The Career Cafe program is aimed at allowing students at GHS to have more exposure to a variety of different career fields to help them better decide what path to pursue after high school.
Nathan Kiger, center, shakes the hand of his father Jerry Kiger, far right, who shared about his career as a Missouri Department of Conservation agent. Jerry Kiger is retiring from MDC this summer and has accepted a position as a high school science teacher at GHS for the upcoming school year. They are pictured with recent graduate Andrew Hambelton, far left.
Karla Smith, who has photographed many of the students in the photo through school, sports or family portraits, is pictured here sharing details about a career in photography.
Penny Britt, who works for Hospice of the Ozarks, visited with her therapy dog Archie. Penny and Archie work with clients during end-of-life care to bring happiness and comfort.
Greg Zubrod, who is now employed as the high school auto mechanics teacher, spoke at Career Cafe, telling students about his prior career in law enforcement.
Senior year in high school is a time when adolescents are pulled in several different directions. Amid juggling academics, extra curricular activities and social lives, students are also in the process of making one of the most important decisions of their lives. Once they’ve graduated high school - then what?
A new program launched at Gainesville High School in the fall of 2023 is aimed at helping students answer that exact question.
“Career Cafe was a new idea in the 2023-24 school year and came about after discussions with our school counselor, Miranda Donley, about ways to expose students to different career pathways,” Misty Perry, GHS College and Career Advisor told the Times.
“I invited guest speakers from the community, based on students’ interests in professions. These generous community members have come into our school and exposed our high school students to 38 different career pathways that school year. Through the development of relationships with these community members, we have been able to increase job shadowing opportunities and internships.”
In its inaugural year, the program was held during the last 10 to 15 minutes of the lunch period, and all high school students were invited to attend. The participation wasn’t mandatory, but several students attended the sessions throughout the year.
“Attendance fluctuated... we have learned our students are highly motivated by snacks, and when guest speakers brought a small snack, attendance soared,” she said.
Perry said that in her position of college and career advisor at Gainesville High School, she meets with high school seniors one-on-one several times a year to discuss their plans after high school.
“If a senior student was undecided about their future but mentioned an interest in a particular career, I would reach out to an individual in the community that is in that profession and ask them to come speak at Career Cafe,” Perry said. “I had one student specifically that had no idea what she wanted to do after high school but expressed interest in insurance, banking, real estate and cosmetology. I reached out to Doug Hawkins, an insurance agent, Kerrie Zubrod with Century Bank of the Ozarks, Amanda Watkins, realtor, and Michelle Anderson, hair stylist, who all agreed to be guest speakers at Career Cafe.”
Perry said that some of the more memorable presenters last year included:
• Penny Britt and her dog Archie shared about pet therapy in hospice care;
• Greg Zubrod, GHS’s beloved high school auto mechanics teacher, shared about his previous career in law enforcement and encouraged students to consider a profession in public service;
• Heather Morrison shared about her career as a registered nurse;
• Billy Pippin shared about his career in accounting (“...and students are still raving over the ‘epic cupcakes’ he brought for the students,” Perry said);
• Patrick Myers shared about his career as an engineer at Baxter Healthcare;
• Nathan Farris shared about his career as an entrepreneur and as a home builder,
• Missouri Ozark Community Health dental hygienists shared about the career options available at MOCH;
• Karla Smith shared about her career in photography;
• Jerry Kiger explained what conservation agents do;
• Heather King, licensed professional counselor, shared about the importance of seeking mental health services;
• and many other speakers left their mark on the students, Perry said.
Recent GHS graduate Nathan Kiger had an interest in pursuing an engineering career and attended two sessions of Career Cafe focused on that career path. One session was led by Patrick Myers, who is employed as an engineer at Baxter Healthcare (also known as Baxter Lab) and another session was led by GHS alumni Ashley Poe, who discussed being an engineering student at College of the Ozarks and the careers she was looking at pursuing after college graduation.
“Career Café really opened up my eyes to the career fields. Some kids struggle knowing what they want to do after high school, and it helped me decide that I want to become an engineer,” Nathan Kiger said.
Dr. Richard Wylie, Gainesville High School Principal, says he thinks the program has made a big impact.
“The career café program has been a fantastic addition to the high schools College and Career readiness program. Mrs. Perry has done a tremendous job bringing in practitioners from both professional and vocational and allowing our students to get firsthand information about prospective careers,” he said.
For the upcoming school year, the program is being expanded and will be held for 30 minutes once a week during homeroom time.
“This will give our students more time to ask questions and interact with our guest speakers,” Perry said. “We are incredibly grateful that so many generous community members invested their time and energy this year and shared valuable information about their professions with our students.”
Perry says she’s in the process of scheduling speakers for the fall sessions. Those who are interested in sharing about a specific career path at GHS next school year can contact Perry at mperry@gainesville.k12.mo.us to be added to the schedule. She said she has a template of questions that she emails to the speakers before their presentations to give them an idea of what basic information is helpful in sharing regarding the career.
Perry says she sees the value in the program based on her own adolescent experiences as a high school graduating senior.
“I was the first college graduate in my family. Since my parents did not have the opportunity to attend college, I did not have anyone to help me navigate through decisions about college, and I made some costly mistakes along my college journey,” she said.
Perry graduated from Mountain Home (Arkansas) High School in 1994 and from college in 1998 from Freed Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee, with a bachelor’s degree in social work. In December 2021, she learned that the Gainesville School District had been awarded a grant for a college and career advisor, and she decided to apply for the position.
She lives in Clarkridge, Arkansas, with her husband and children. She is the sister of another familiar Ozark County face, Bakersfield Superintendent Amy Padgett.