Guest Speaker: Melissa Kescenovitz from the Kettle Moraine YMCA

Guest Speaker Ms. Melissa Kescenovitz works as a child care specialist  and director of youth development at the Kettle Moraine YMCA. Kids that are aged 6 weeks to 13 years old come to the YMCA and to learn social and academic skills. She shared information about volunteering at the YMCA including the requirements to work there. She also gave students tips for working in childcare and gave the ins and outs of her profession. Ms. Kescenovitz says,"The toughest part of my job is the tattling. If so and so comes and says he/she hit me, I would say,'let's use our words and tell them to stop.' That is the toughest part of my job."

Guest Speakers from The Youth and Family Project

Pathways guest speakers Ms. Liz Paasch and Ms. Stacy Casper work at the non-profit The Youth and Family Project in West Bend. They shared the services offered there, and described their pathways to their careers as well as various other careers in the human services career cluster. They also quizzed students on mental health issues. Many students asked questions about the speakers’ diverse tracks to their current professions, exploring possible avenues into human services professions.

Guest Speakers Chris Schatz, Cindy Hinckley, and Denise Puffer

Guest Speaker Chris Schatz works for Moraine Park Technical College and came in to Pathways to talk about the Human Services career cluster. Those employed in the human services field work with other people to help. Human Services is an important career cluster in our world. Mr. Schatz says to be employed in this cluster, you have to have a “willingness to work with people, and help people.”

Guest Speaker Mrs.Cindy Hinckley and Mrs.Denise Puffer both work for WorkForce Development and help those at least 16 years old find a job in the West Bend area. They demonstrated the importance of following directions by giving students a “following directions test.” This helped drive home the significance in following directions in the workplace, and that skill needs to be developed at a young age according to our guest speakers.  They also explained that “the most important thing businesses are looking for in a person getting a job is education.”

Guest Speaker: Staff Sergeant Wil Stevens

Staff Sergeant Wil Stevens, father of Alex Stevens, came in to discuss how technology has advanced military operations and what is being planned for the future.  Staff Sergeant Stevens said, "Within my time, the way of communication is the most important military advancement.” Students have been marketing military technological advancements and Staff Sergeant Stevens gave them the opportunity to see how the historical advancement they researched might have been a precursor to current military technology.

Guest Coach- Cory Mitchell

Guest Coach Cory Mitchell, a digital marketing instructor at Moraine Park Technical College, listened to and gave feedback to students' sales pitches. Students and he acted as interested buyers for products in the "Pathways Board Room."

Mr. Mitchell was happy to see students' pitches that went along with their marketing plans saying, "The presentations today have been excellent. I am very impressed with the detail in the presentations."

Guest Speaker Jacci Gambucci

On December 18th Guest Speaker Mrs. Jacci Gambucci, President at Badger Promotions in West Bend, explained more about marketing in the real world and how salesmen try to attract you to their booth or their product. Mrs.Gambucci explained, “I think the most important thing is knowing who your audience is because if you are trying to draw somebody to your product you need to focus on the people that maybe interested in buying your product. For example, why would you promote a coffee mug to a 12-year-old?” This helped students as they marketed a technological advancement for the marketing career cluster.

Jacci Gambucci answered Adam Fehring, Austin Kosmatka and other students' individual questions to help them market a technological advancement for the marketing career cluster.

Marshmallow Challenge

On December 6, 2013, the Pathways students had a marshmallow contest to see which group could make theirs stand the highest to utilize teamwork and engineering.

In Patrick O'Connor's room, the group that won was Olivia, Jenica, Connor, and Sarah.  Their groups stand was 57 cm high made with marshmallows, string, a basin, and a yard of tape with noodles.