New Web site offers kids a chance for career choices

In a perfect world, Gail Mance-Rios says there would be a counselor assigned to each Rhode Island student as early as elementary school. Students would get one-on-one guidance through their high school graduation.
But Mance-Rios, deputy director of the Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Authority (RIHEAA), believes the agency’s new Web site might be the next best thing.
RIHEAA, the state-funded, college financial aid program, has launched a site – WayToGoRI.org – that will assist students as early as elementary school in making career choices, among other things.
The site also helps parents and educators prepare youngsters for higher education – suggesting courses for certain career tracks, narrowing a search for universities, offering test preparation and simplifying the process of applying for financial aid.
There are no fees to use the site, which is designed by XAP Corp., a private Los Angeles-based education company.
Mance-Rios said WayToGoRI.org is the first site in the nation to offer a combination of career planning and assistance in applying for financial aid and college.
“We didn’t want something that just sits on a desk; we really want this to be a useful tool,” she said recently.
RIHEAA has authorized up to $5 million to spend on the continuing development of the Web site, as well as marketing and training – that includes a three-year contract with XAP that could be extended to up to nine years.
A similar career-planning program, Choices Planner, had been offered by Bridges Transitions Inc., which numerous local school districts had purchased. South Kingstown High School, for instance, had paid $1,600 annually for the Bridges program for students to use.
XAP has since acquired Bridges Transitions, and now South Kingstown and other Rhode Island schools will be able to use the same service for free through the WayToGoRI.org site, with some added benefits.
Rose Majeika, director of guidance at South Kingstown High, said use of Choices Planner software had been limited to the computers in the school library, which were only available at certain times of the school day. “It was difficult to keep up the continuity and the students’ interest,” she said.
Now that the program is Web-based, it can be accessed by students at anytime, Majeika said.
In addition, Barbara Crudale, one of five counselors at 1,180-student South Kingstown High, is pleased that middle school students will have access to a version of the Choices program that targets a younger age group so they and their parents can start mapping future plans.
RIHEAA has been meeting with educators and other community groups to ensure that the Web site offers features that students and others need to succeed.
Mance-Rios said WayToGoRI.org is designed to help educators and students meet the requirements of Rhode Island’s new high school diploma system, in which all students are required to meet similar educational standards in order to graduate.
The new system, which will be applied for the first time to students graduating next June, requires seniors to show their proficiency in subject areas either by assembling a portfolio, completing a senior project or taking an exam.
The state is also requiring districts to develop individualized learning plans for students and ensure that every high schooler has at least one faculty member following his or her educational progress.
The RIHEAA Web site allows educators to organize and track individual learning plans and view student portfolios that follow the schoolchildren from elementary school to high school.
Mance-Rios said the site will have additional features in the coming months. Visitors will be able to search for prospective colleges based on various search parameters such as cost and specialties, and then they can take online tours of campuses.
Students can eventually apply to college through the site and have their transcripts sent to those schools electronically.
Interest is already high, according to RIHEAA.
Kathy Sisson, the agency’s program director, already has booked training sessions with counselors through February. And before RIHEAA has started its publicity push, about 15,000 portfolios have been established by children and educators at 83 schools statewide and various other community sites such as Boys & Girls Clubs, Mance-Rios said.
The elementary school visitors to the WayToGoRI.org site are linked to Paws in Jobland, a program in which youngsters investigate more than 100 careers with the help of an animated dog named Paws.
Middle school and high school students set up portfolios to use various college and career-planning tools based on grade level.
“This is teaching the students [to plan],” said J. Michael Thompson, CEO of XAP Corp. “It’s about looking at a goal that is far out in front of them, not just about tomorrow.”
In South Kingstown, school administrators already have made it mandatory for incoming ninth graders to create a portfolio on WayToGoRI.org.
“This connects all the dots to get students and their parents to start career planning early,” Crudale said. “They can’t wait to their senior year to start having that conversation.” •