Teacher Utilizes Technology to Help Students Explore Careers during Virtual Career Day

PAGE – May 22, 2008 – Chuck Serventi’s 5th grade classroom at Lakeview Elementary School was buzzing on May 19.  There were actors and musicians from Las Vegas, a mobile veterinarian from Macon, Ga., a pastry chef from the Hard Rock Casino, a retired Hall-of-Fame baseball player and even a casting director from Nickelodeon in Orlando, Fla.

All of these professionals spoke to Serventi’s class; however none of them actually came in – they all used video emails to communicate with his students – they all participated in a virtual career day!

For the past two years, Serventi has used a media platform to help educate his students called HelloWorld.  It has enabled him to record many of his lessons online, allowing students to watch them over and over, at any time of the day or night.  Absent students can view the lessons, or even watch them live from their homes. 

Serventi’s students and parents share that their lessons are much easier to understand, and the media platform has been very helpful in completing homework as well as grasping concepts. 
           
Serventi contacted professionals from all over the world to share their knowledge with his class.

“Because my students are so rural, many of them do not truly know what else is out there,” he explained.  “HelloWorld has helped them hear from many unique professionals, many of which live thousands of miles from Page, and could never have spoken to my class without the help of video email.” 

Page borders Utah and the Navajo Reservation.  The closest cities are Flagstaff and St. George, both over 2 hours away.

Among the professionals participating in the virtual career day were: a veterinarian, musician, pastry chef, high school guidance counselor, entrepreneur, police officer, restaurant owner, trapeze artist, magician’s apprentice, professional mascot, casting director, professional speaker, book author and publisher.  Even a quarterback coach from the Jim Kelly Quarterback School in Buffalo and Hall-of-Fame baseball pitcher “Sudden” Sam McDowell participated in the virtual career day. 

Serventi called the virtual career day a huge success and is planning on incorporating it every year.  He said his students asked some great questions of the virtual panel, including how they originally become interested in their careers, what they do day-to-day on the job, who or what inspired them to pursue the career path they chose, what kind of educational background the professionals had and advice for getting into the field.

“The students loved watching the different careers on our projector connected to a computer,” Serventi said.  “Wouldn’t it be great if one of my fifth graders was inspired to become a casting director, pastry chef, major league baseball player or even a veterinarian because someone took the time to share their career…?”