Project Update - 3/27/2014

In class, our progress on our project moved rather slowly today. We are trying to gauge a new time frame to work under to ensure that we could complete every aspect of our job fair, but we were halted when it came down to picking a date for our job fair so that we could book a room. We checked every weekend and Thursday in April, but there was always some event going on that prevented us from using each date. The location and time of the job fair is a major factor because that is what determines how many people can fit in the venue, and also, how many WP students would be able to actually attend the event. We also took the school schedules of the WP students into consideration more than we took the Siena student's schedule into consideration because it would be easier to get more Siena volunteers than getting WP volunteers, and the event is for them after all.

Our research was also delayed due to the fact that we did not receive a response from the Career Center. Last week, Lexi emailed the career center in order to set a meeting with them to discuss possible jobs that the refugees could obtain and how we could optimize the experience that the students have at our event. After realizing that we did not receive a response from the Career Center, I called them to assure that our email actually sent and they had seen it. Once the center apologized for not responding to the email, they sent a follow up email to a counselor that could help us. We are still waiting back to hear.

During WP next Thursday, we will do an activity with the students to get them thinking and speaking to us about what they would like to do with their futures.

Job Fair Focus Group

What would you want to learn from the focus group?

From our focus group, we could learn what the Writing Partnership students are expecting after high school and what they would like their futures to become.

What kind of questions would you ask?

We would ask questions such as:

• How old are you?/What grade are you in?
• What are your interests in school?
• What are your hobbies?
• How do you picture your life in the next few years?

Who would you invite? How would you get them there?

We would invite the students from Writing Partnership who attend high school. Their level of completed high school education does not matter because we would then be able to have a range of ages. If we have a range of ages, then we would be more prepared to help with the transition of the students' needs over their time in school. We would schedule our focus group during one of the Writing Partnership meetings and separate the students that we are asking to participate. 

What obstacles would you likely encounter in your focus groups? How would you overcome these obstacles?

Obstacles that we would overcome are having the students not quite understand the purpose of us doing this. Also, they might have answers such as they want to play soccer when they grow up, and we would want them to pick more attainable options. So we would have to introduce them to other options without guiding them towards a specific option.

What would you hope to gain from a focus group for your project?  

I would hope that we gain more of an insight into what the students expect to happen after their high school career. Once we do, we would be able to help them reach their goals or develop a plan if they are not sure what their specific goals are.