The eighth grade students were asked to explore their past up to now via a resume outline to begin to prepare for entry into high school as Freshmen. During the process, there was a realization that their participation in and contributions to the educational process along with various achievements and accomplishments over the past eight or nine years had merit and meaning for the future as they prepared to enter high school.

When they sat before their resume outlines getting ready to transfer their information over to a more formal resume format via a Word template, there was a sense of awe, pride and self-worth as they went over [read] their listings of objectives, schools attended and accomplishments, skills, work histories [if any such as babysitting, community work, helping out, etc.], hobbies/interests and references. Even after just eight or nine grade levels at the "tender" age of 13/14, their listings proved to have meaningful content with various building blocks set into place. They could sense these building blocks within their listings.

Again, this exercise in self-exploration ... the RESUME ... proved to be a worthwhile endeavor as it related to empowerment of the students to want to continue their educational process to be able to "update" their resumes as they progressed. This thought alone is a very important one as we all strive to move forward and upward through society with our resumes in hand.

I mentioned to the students that over the years, I had used my own resume close to thirty times to obtain various positions in the U.S.A. and abroad, not to mention that I kept it updated on almost a monthly basis. I showed them my resume [online], and they all understood the importance of this kind of document throughout a lifetime.

The resume files have been sent to Ms. Mills, Technology Applications Teacher, High School Academy so the students can continue to build on/add to their documents next school year. These files will act as "letters of introduction" for these youngsters. It's possible that Mr. Rodriguez, Principal may very well call the students into his office to formalize the enrollment process by actually going over their resumes online. This will add credibility to the resume project in the sense that what the students did in the classroom in the Junior Academy will have relevance to their continuation of the educational process via their resumes at the High School Academy level. And they will realize that their resume exercise was not just for a grade, but also for the more important aspect of being interviewed for acceptance and recognition at the next level. In fact, I think the students will be surprised that their resumes were taken seriously ... a sobering effect, if you will ... in terms of what they do having a greater impact. The resumes will then be placed in their respective files/folders.

This project set a perspective for these youngsters as they remembered their past and achievements/accomplishments after eight or nine years of education. The process set the stage for an ongoing relationship with the resume.

Links to the student resume PDF files follow [Alphabetical order, left to right.]: