Mary Alice Reporting –
One big focus for the Dover City School District going into the 2023-24 year is to enhance their career readiness program.
A new hire was Counselor Lindsey Tidrick, who has been interacting with the students by attending the English Language Arts classes and she provided Dover Board of Education members with an update.
During this week’s meeting, Tidrick presented the counselors’ main goal of engaging with Dover students and making sure they have a career plan.
“I’m really a huge proponent of exposing them early on K through 12. There’re studies that have shown that if you start in kindergarten and you start slowly introducing it and talking with them about it, they get excited, and you know giving them these different ideas early on and exposing them [like] career fairs.”
Based upon a study, 52% of students feel pressure in high school, with Tidrick noting this can come from peer, parent, and personal pressure, especially with the question of what a student will do after graduation.
“One in three of them believe that college cost and mental health will impact their future, so we have to be addressing that. How do we get them a plan now so that in four years they’re successful. Fifty-three are optimistic and fourteen percent are not.”
Tidrick told board members that she will meet with junior and senior students in personal appointments to go over what they see for their future or possible career and employment paths.
It was also noted that, last year, Dover had 15 graduating students who did not know their next steps and the district’s goal is to ensure every senior student has a future vision and knowledge of what they can do upon graduation.
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