BROOKINGS A new course at Brookings High School aims to improve both graduation and employment rates for students. Jobs for Americas Graduates or JAG is a national program that helps kids stay in school while exploring career options.
JAG actually started as a drop-out prevention program but its evolved, Brooke Meendering, Brookings JAG teacher, said. There are 15 schools that have it in South Dakota, and this is our first semester at Brookings I think of it as a careers class but with a lot more to offer. We dont just sit and talk about different careers. We talk about what skills we need to be able to achieve our goals.
Founded in Delaware in 1980, the program is now taught at more than 1,000 schools. In South Dakota, JAG classes were first implemented at Wagner and Lake Andes in 2009. The state education department established a JAG director position in 2020. The last two years, South Dakotas program has been recognized by the national nonprofit for exceeding expectations.
JAG has been something that Brookings High School has wanted for a long period of time, Meendering said. If a student is enrolled with JAG, their chances of graduating are at 98% Thats one of the big reasons we wanted to pull JAG into Brookings to both help with graduation rates and to help with finding careers after students graduate.
Students can voluntarily take the class but many are assigned there to address academic red flags.
We do have certain things we have to look at for each student, Meendering said. Attendance is one. If they dont have enough credits for their grade level or if their GPA isnt high enough then that automatically can put them in JAG.
She said the students are already thriving.
Ive had a lot of students tell me they want to go into the trades. A lot of them are thinking about going to Lake Area or Mitchell Tech, Meendering said. We also have a lot of students currently employed by nursing homes and (they) already have their CNA Theyre 16 years old, juniors in high school and already have jobs working alongside 30-year olds. I think that really helps them develop a work ethic.
Students hear from guest speakers in class, including representatives from Bowes Construction, Larson Manufacturing, the U.S. Army and the city of Brookings.
Mayor Ope Niemeyer came in for a day, Meendering said. That was really fun, because he took time to speak with us about city government and all the different components and pieces of it.
Students also learned about state government during a tour of Pierre last month.
That was called Capitol Conversations and JAG does that every year, Meendering said. We were able to meet the governor. We also talked with the secretary of education which was really cool for the students. It was like our small group sitting and talking to him and just asking him questions.
Later this month, theyre attending a resume-building workshop. Meendering also hopes to introduce job shadowing next year along with a student-run career association to promote leadership skills. She said JAG is a long-term investment in students.
JAG has a component called follow-up, Meendering said. Every student that I have, I will keep in contact with them for a year after graduation. So when I do that, Ill ask them, are you in school, are you employed what can I do to help get you in those directions?
She wants students to start asking career questions early on.
It took a little bit for the students to be really brought in, because they werent sure what (JAG) was, Meendering said. Once the students got into it and saw what sort of places they can go with it, theyre definitely thriving I have 9th through 11th grade, and those 11th-graders are really thinking about their futures. The freshmen, not so much but were getting those wheels turning, and I want all of them to have some idea of what they want with their future.
Contact Jay Roe at [email protected].
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