ROCKVILLE, MD— The MoCo CAP initiative recently brought onboard a crucial component to the innovative educational program.
Around 500 Teacher Champions have signed up to help support the implementation of career advising in Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) middle, high, and special schools. These classroom teachers will play a critical role reinforcing the work done by the 50 Career Coaches hired by WorkSource Montgomery.
MCPS held a welcome event on Feb. 13 at Gaithersburg High School to formally introduce MoCo CAP to the Champions, who will receive a stipend for their work with the initiative.
Dr. Genevieve Floyd, MCPS Career and Postsecondary Partnerships Supervisor, thanked the 320 Champions in attendance for joining the project, which will ultimately reach more than 87,000 students throughout the county.
“This is a massive task, and an awesome opportunity. The work that we’re going to do in providing individualized services to our students will transform the way we prepare them for their future,” Floyd said. “We will not accomplish this work because we have one Career Advising Coach in a school. It will take all of us working in concert. It will take the collective.
“It will take the career advising educator Champions at this workshop to help stand this work up and create a vibrant career culture at every secondary school.”
The plan calls for eight Teacher Champions per middle school, 12 per high school, and two per special school to aid the respective Career Coaches as theyhelp students learn to advocate for themselves and navigate the different college and career readiness pathways.
Champions will amplify the Coaches’ work by incorporating Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC) themes and interest-based conversations into ongoing instruction as follow-ups to one-on-one and small-group career discussions.
They will also connect with career exploration opportunities so students see their work-based explorations as extensions of experiences within the school and support a “college, career, and community” culture within the school through ongoing discussions with students.