Pathways to Purpose: Enlivening the Grad Profile Through Internships, Feedback, and Reflection

It’s June 1st- a day when many students in the Commonwealth of Kentucky are already soaking up the whimsy of summer. However, seniors at Frankfort High School aren’t yet basking in the sun. In fact, they’re in school to share with their community the very best of their work, to describe how their school experience has changed them as a person, and ultimately defend why they’re ready to take on whatever path they’re choosing to pursue after their time at FHS.

On the surface, this might sound like a daunting task- one that seniors on the brim of graduation might find burdensome, but as you enter the halls of the school, there’s an unmistakable buzz of excitement. Smiles, hugs and students pumping each other up in classrooms putting the final touches on their presentations. Community members, local business leaders, parents and family members, past and current educators, friends, and curious visitors from elsewhere file into classrooms taking a seat for each senior’s Profile of a Graduate Presentation.

At the front of the classroom shines the young adult we’ve all gathered to learn about and celebrate. She begins, “I’m so excited to be here today. What I’m going to be sharing with you has been my favorite part of high school. Today feels even better than graduation because I get to show you what I’m proud of.”

She goes on to share with her panel of family members, community partners, teachers, and classmates all of the wonderful experiences she’s had in her internship over the past year- how she went from being someone who hated collaborating before because she always felt she could get things done more efficiently and better on her own to someone who discovered the power of “being a thought partner.”

This glimpse into one Frankfort senior’s Profile of a Graduate Presentation isn’t an anomaly. In fact, each presentation you visit, student after student makes it clear that Frankfort High School has dramatically changed the trajectory of students’ lives by providing them opportunities for authentic learning experiences and just as important, the space to reflect upon and share that learning.

How Frankfort is transforming the student experience

If you were to visit Frankfort High School any typical day of the school year, you’d likely find yourself wondering, “Where are all the seniors?” For the majority of most school ays, seniors at FHS leave their school campus as students and enter community spaces where they’re serving and learning as interns.

Shane Hecker, Frankfort High School’s Panther Profile Coordinator, says this structure was purposefully designed to “make senior year more goal oriented. What we were seeing is that if [as a senior] you’re on track to graduate and you’ve done what you need to, you have two credits left.” Essentially seniors were left with only two ‘required’ courses and the rest of their schedule was left to be filled with what seniors might want to take or what was available from

the school’s offerings. Hecker reflects, “It was fun, they got to do some things they enjoy, but senior year didn’t really help kids with what they wanted to do after high school.”

It wasn’t just a hunch that senior year wasn’t meeting the needs of their learners. There was evidence of that story in their graduates’ stories as well. Hecker elaborates, “At one time our ACT scores weren’t where we wanted them, so we worked and got those scores where almost all of our kids were getting into colleges. However, we saw that kids weren’t staying at the schools, many weren’t even staying past the first semester. What we found was we had

prepared them for a test but not for what life actually looks like.”

So the school took action, seeking to continue its rich tradition of empowering students with the academic knowledge they’d need to succeed but now coupling that with the durable skills like communication and collaboration. Their Profile of a Graduate was born. In their current system, junior year students complete a Profile of Graduate Presentation, much like other districts with a Graduate Profile might engage in at key points along their K-12 journey.

Juniors curate evidence of their learning from their classroom experiences that they believe demonstrate their abilities in Grad Profile skills like ‘creativity’. However for students at FHS, this defense is a launching point for senior year. In the final component of these presentations, juniors articulate their plans for senior year. Specifically, each senior lays out an internship placement they’d like to pursue the next year and how the Grad Profile skills they’ve developed

demonstrate their readiness to tackle that internship.

Of course, having a plan to intern and actually getting to the internship takes hard work- work that the Frankfort High School team strategically supports students in leading. One senior describes the lengths she took to find his own path and earn his ideal internship, “I started out in an orthodontist office and I was quickly like no, no please don't let me look at teeth anymore. So I worked with Mr. Hecker to find a better fit. He’s super good about helping you figure out the internship that’s right for you.”

Eventually that student discovered his passion for government, “I wanted a more full picture of the Kentucky government. I wanted insight into the governor's office, so I called there but I didn't get a response. Eventually, I was like, ‘you know what, I'm going’, so I went up to their office and I was like this is my application. I've emailed you guys and I want to go here for my internship. They ended up giving me one which was super exciting.” Hecker has worked diligently to establish relationships with community partners, both inside and outside of Frankfort. Students interned for places such as local dentist offices, auto shops, the Kentucky Department of Education, and 2nd Street School. Some interned for companies outside of Frankfort digitally as well. The hard work Hecker puts into establishing and

maintaining these relationships is evident at every senior defense.

As one senior put it, “in my internship, I learned about REAL collaboration. At school when we collaborate, it’s always a little fake or turns out to be independent. In my internship I really had to work alongside and with my mentors.”

Another senior reflected on how their internship allowed them to refine their Profile of Graduate skills and see their importance, “My internship was all about having effective communication and good conversations. I think [communication] is the most important skill because if you can't have an effective conversation with somebody and be polite and respectful, then they won't respect you and then you're going to get nothing done.”

Perhaps the greatest payoff of all, though, is the unmistakable passion and confidence seniors are leaving Frankfort High School with. The concluding words of one senior’s Profile of a Graduate Presentation capture the transformative power this system has had on her life, “Thank you, Frankfort High School. I’m so excited for my life after I leave here because I KNOW this is what I want to do.”

How to get started

Frankfort High School’s model reveals many levers for transforming the student experience. One of those simple shifts is the intentional use of feedback and reflection. Each month, seniors gather for “Senior Seminar”, a time focused on being reflective. As Hecker puts it, “ Kids struggle with actively collecting evidence of their PoG skills for their presentations. Each time we meet, they give a mini presentation on a single PoG skill. We put them on the spot to give 2-3 minute presentations to another to get practice and update others on what they’ve been doing.”

This wasn’t comfortable for students at first, but Hecker reminds students, “If you’re uncomfortable, then you’re learning something.” Hecker acknowledges that meaningful feedback and reflection requires special conditions. “You have to make it safe and then constantly give feedback. Quick.” In these sessions, students received on-the-spot feedback from peers and mentors.

Hecker leverages the safety of that learning community to hone students’ presentation and feedback skills. “Our Senior Seminars built up to practicing a mini-PoG Presentation where they went through each of the six skills. This built a sense of community and created some friendly competition. Hecker remembers students remarking after seeing peers’ presentations, “Crap! That’s really good, after seeing these others I know I need to keep working.” The intentional

structure of timely feedback from a meaningful audience paired with time for reflection and revision led to beautifully designed and expertly delivered PoG Presentations.At the school level, Hecker acknowledges that the transformation Frankfort High School has made is a huge lift. One place to get started would be to look for existing structures that might be entry points, “This idea actually started decades ago in the 90’s as a senior project. It continued to evolve throughout the years, but the development of our district’s Profile of a Graduate gave it something real to base it off of. It made the ask of those original senior presentations more meaningful- show us the best of your work on your PoG skills.”

To get started having students in internships, Hecker emphasizes that it’s all about relationships, admitting, “What we do wouldn’t be possible without our community support.”

One way to get started is to begin a little smaller in order to develop those trusting community partnerships, “We used to do a job fair junior year. That’s where students would find their placements.” “We also have students complete some job shadowing that allows students to do some networking in their earlier years of high school. That networking often turns into an internship opportunity senior year or helps kids rule out a place or industry they don’t want to pursue.”

Hecker also notes that ‘virtual job shadowing’ is a useful tool. “Pathful Explore is a helpful tool we’ve used to get students thinking about what they might want to do and expose them to career opportunities they might not have considered. We use their exploration in that virtual job shadowing as a tool in our mentor period at the high school to start the conversation about ‘what might you want to do’ and get to know our students better.”

Whether it be a full blown senior internship or meaningful conversations with a trusted mentor about possible careers, Hecker has seen the payoff, “Getting them into the workforce, regardless of at what level, is beneficial."