Program helps young leader become a champion
At a School Division Board meeting, just days before her convocation ceremony of March 11, eleven-year-old Rebecca Cheasley found the courage to stand up for a program that she loves, Career Trek.
“I heard my mom tell my dad that there would not be Career Trek next year,” says Rebecca Cheasley. “As soon as I heard that, I told my mom that couldn’t happen.”
The idea that Career Trek might be cancelled due to budget cuts spurred Cheasley into action. Before long she was standing in front of her school division’s Board of Trustees singing the praises of Career Trek’s hands-on programming.
Overcoming her fear, Chelsey informed the board that, “every day at Career Trek I get to try four different careers. At Career Trek I learn about careers by doing things, not just reading or writing.”
“It’s easier for me to learn by doing hands on activities and seeing how things work and this is what I do every Saturday at Career Trek,” says Cheasley.
Career Trek’s leadership was suitably impressed with the organization’s newest spokesperson.
“The fact that a young person you serve is so passionate about the value of the work you do for her that she stands before a group of adults and finds her voice to defend what she believes in is fantastic,” says Career Trek CEO, Darrell Cole. “As an organization, this is the ultimate validation of why you exist.”
While there is no doubt that Rececca Cheasley is an exceptional young person, she is but one of 180 students that attend Career Trek programing in the Westman Region every year.
“It’s really important that you keep sending students to Career Trek for many years to come,” says Cheasley. “Career Trek teaches us about different jobs and how important school is.”
In her own way and in her own voice, Cheasley has become a Career Development advocate, urging the powers that be to recognize the importance of getting kids to think about their futures early.
Cheasley closed her presentation to the board with a plea to save the program from budget cuts, “to help students, especially students like me, please change your mind and keep sending students to Career Trek.”