By EMILY BEHLMANN

A path to career exploration (Video)

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ebehlmann@gctelegram.com

Through all her years of school, Maria Gomez has wanted to be a teacher, she said. In fact, her third-grade teacher told her mom that although she was a good student, she always tried to take over the class.

Now, Gomez is about ready to graduate from Garden City High School and start her education degree at Kansas State University. She'll have a chance to try her hand at teaching in that program, but she said she wanted to get into the classroom sooner, during her GCHS Buff Project.

She and other members of the GCHS senior class presented their Buff Projects to staff and community judges on Friday. The semester-long project, required for graduation, involves a research paper, a product, a portfolio and a presentation.

For her project, Gomez researched sign language, then learned enough sign language to sign a children's book to a deaf USD 457 student, and taught the American Sign Language alphabet to a class at Victor Ornelas Elementary School.

She said she has her mentor, Edith Scheuerman Elementary School interpreter Shelly Porterfield, to thank for helping her go from total unfamiliarity with the language to a level where she was comfortable signing an entire book.

"I didn't have a clue at all what to do," Gomez said. "It took a long time to learn."

Following the project, Gomez said she's looking forward to working with students who have diverse needs, such as those who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Preparing for a future career is part of the purpose of Buff Projects, according to Karan Long, Buff Project coordinator.

She said the assignment requires seniors to put together research, communication and other skills they've been learning through their time at USD 457. They'll continue to use the skills in college and on the job, she said.

This school year, students were encouraged to focus their project on either work in community service or exploration of a career interest, she said.

In the community service realm, the project is a route toward involvement in volunteer organizations, and a chance to meet people and become familiar with local programs, Long said.

In a career, they're usually asked to job shadow and try an aspect of the career themselves, she said.

"It's beneficial for students to get their feet wet in careers," she said.

That's what Guadalupe Martinez did when he first observed, then taught math lessons for a fourth-grade class at Georgia Matthews Elementary School. He said that watching his own teachers through his schooling, he's always wondered what it would be like to lead a class.

Teaching the fourth-graders was a challenge, but Martinez said he felt like he did well, and the students seemed to understand the math problems he reviewed with them ahead of the Kansas State Assessments.

However, he determined teaching wasn't the right career for him, he said. He's considering going into architecture or engineering instead.

"It takes a lot of patience," he said. "You have to keep going until they understand."

Besides learning more about a career, students can use the Buff Project to network with people who might be able to help them later in life, Long said. Some even have gotten job offers as a result of the connections they've made, she said.

Ben Staats, whose project was a photography show at the ArtsCenter on Main, said it helped him get to know curators and teachers who might be able to help him as he works toward a career in photography. He'll start that career working at the Silhouette, the campus newspaper at Garden City Community College.