Success StoryBuilding Your Future



Building Your Future

Author: Leslea Barnes

Planning Unit: Crittenden County CES

Major Program: Family and Consumer Sciences 4-H Core Curriculum

Plan of Work: Securing Financial Stability for our community to build a better community

Outcome: Intermediate Outcome

What do I want to be when I grow up? What do I want to do with the rest of my life?  What college will I go to?  Do I want to go to college or maybe learn a trade?  What are my options?  What can I do?   These are many questions youth ask themselves for many years, especially in high school. It was a need in Crittenden County.  School tries to prepare them for the future, but we were missing something and that's how Building Your Future day was started. This was a program was created from ideas at a 4-H Council meeting and presented to the high school and has grown every year since.  All High school youth are divided into 4 groups and within those groups they are rotating through a career fair type setting, life skills rotation, financial skills rotation and mental health coping skills.  In the gym we have over 40 booths set up that youth can visit that show them ideas about careers, trades, technical schools and college options.  Students are able to freely rotate among the booths to gain information and ideas about what they can do with their future.  We have had a lot of feedback from booth presenters that they wished there was something like this when they were in high school.  While one group is in this section another group was learning how to create a budget, how to wisely invest in their future, how to shop smart, preparing nutritious snacks, as well as CPR, car maintenance and survival skills.  This year it was decided that there was a great need to help students learn mental health coping skills. Professionals in this area were brought in to talk to kids and apply the skills that they learned during the presentation.  Students learned ways to relax through yoga, the importance of making healthy choices, the importance of having a network of people who you can talk to and some breathing exercises to do when you are feeling stressed and overwhelmed.  This has been such a successful program that the school has really stepped up to support it in any way possible.  We have at least 75 people from the community helping in this day from speakers to college/career booths as well as the whole high school students and teachers participating in this day.  Students have commented that they are learning more about their career choices as well as knowing the importance to financially investing in their future.   Students also have commented that they can now create a budget, learned a new coping skill and a life skill they can use in their daily life.  In fact, last year we taught how to change a tire and a students' mother reported back to us that their son had told his mom when he got home one night that he had a flat tire and he knew how to change it because of this day.  Students have also expressed that they wished there was more types of these lessons incorporated into their daily school routines. We feel extremely positive about this day and know that we are helping and impacting our students in a positive way.  We look forward to how this program will grow in the future to help our students. 






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