Kristi Billings and Marie Fields work together in the choir room at Brown County High School. The two are involved in the Bezos Scholar Program, the handbook of which is seen on the table. A part of the program is to facilitate a community-oriented project. Billings and Fields decided to put on the first ever POP Festival this month at the high school.
Walking across the stage in a cap and gown as “Pomp and Circumstance” plays signifies the end of an era for high school students all over the world.
But what happens after tassels are turned as one chapter ends and a new, more daunting chapter begins? Endless possibilities can be overwhelming to a soon-to-be high school graduate.
Two individuals at Brown County High School are trying to ease the stress of future decisions and helping students focus on their futures.
High school choir teacher Kristi Billings and senior Marie “Josephine” Fields were one of 12 teams in the country selected to participate in the Bezos Scholar program last year, a year-long leadership program tackling community-change and identifying community needs.
The need that Billings and Fields identified in Brown County was to connect students from rural communities to post-secondary educational and career opportunities.
Thus the POP Festival was born.
POP stands for “Pursuing Our Purpose.” The structure the festival has taken is in two stages.
The first is a four-week long purpose development workshop that has taken place, leading students — and teachers too — in reflection of four areas: identities, passions, interests and strengths.
Once those four areas are addressed by the individual, they develop a “purpose statement” to help bring them guidance for future career and college decisions.
The second part of the festival is a career and college fair at the high school on April 28, complete with vendors from colleges, businesses, military branches and other organizations.
The festival as a whole is designed to “bridge the gap” between what students need and to give them access to opportunities, knowledge and skills to help them make choices for themselves and pursue opportunities, Billings said.
She added that there seems to be an increase in student apathy that extends beyond the walls of the schools and into their futures because they are not equipped for picking a path after high school.
Fields added there are a lot of systemic barriers that play into the pipeline between rural students and low-income, low-skill jobs after high school.
“We as a community are very geographically isolated, so connecting students to things beyond Brown County is pretty difficult because ‘no one ever leaves Brown County,’ essentially,” Fields said.
“Getting students to recognize there are opportunities for them beyond our insular community is really, really important.”
Ahead of the POP Festival, purpose development sessions have taken place during student resource time at the high school in partnership with nXu.
According to their website, nXu is a nonprofit initiative that “provides research-based, transformative, purpose-driven learning experiences for youth and adults through a school-based curriculum, educator training and development and direct student programming.”
It’s important for students to do this reflective introspective prior to the career festival because a lot of students don’t have an idea of what they want to do after graduation, Fields said.
“Hopefully doing these reflective exercises will give them some kind of direction and clarity going into the career fair,” she said.
Working with Brown County Schools administration to slot an entire school day for workshops and the career fair has been key to making this all happen, Billings said.
“As a school district we’re trying to increase this focus on career-connected learning,” Billings said. “This does that in a way that also gives the student some time and space for individual reflection and exploration.”
Preparing for next steps
Billings and Fields participated in purpose development sessions as a part of the Bezos program in July last year. The “transformative” experience was something they wanted to bring to all Brown County students. During the workshop they wrote their own purpose statements.
Fields said her purpose statement has been influential in her life as a student and she’ll keep it with her as she advances in college and her career.
It states in part: “my purpose is to use my ability to empathize with others, strong communication skills, natural leadership and performance abilities, combined with my passion for social justice and liberal arts and working with young people to advocate for educational equity through teaching and policy making.”
Fields will attend Boston College in the fall on a full-ride scholarship, pursuing secondary education with a focus on social studies. She also hopes to earn a degree in political science and minor in gender studies.
“Writing my purpose statement was transformative for me when I was writing my college essays and doing college applications. I’m someone who’s pretty much always known what I wanted to do, but having it written down on paper really helped me,” Fields said.
During this process Fields thought back to when she was a freshman and how an opportunity like the career fair would have been helpful to her at the time.
“I’m really glad that I’m able to provide something for younger classmen because I would’ve found it useful,” she said.
Billings’ statement guides her teaching and mentorship in the schools: “As an organizational leader and skilled educator, my purpose in life is to use my capacity for creative and strategic problem solving, combined with my ability to organize and motivate people to support and empower people to make inclusive change in my communities.”
Billings said they can present all of the opportunities in the world to students, but if they don’t understand how to evaluate those opportunities with what aligns with their own interests and goals “they can end up just as lost if we don’t present them opportunities to begin with.”
At the POP Festival, students will be able to explore career opportunities from local organizations offering promising careers including Centerstone, Brown County Health and Living, Cummins and Mainstream Fiber.
“I think it’s important for students to recognize for them to be successful they don’t have to leave this community,” Fields said. “There are a lot of opportunities for us in Brown County. You don’t have to leave Brown County to be something in this world.”
Students will also be able to attend empowerment workshops throughout the career fair day.
Workshops have been derived from student surveys and will cover topics like financial literacy, resume building, college application processes and more.
Some will also cover self care, addressing healthy living habits, yoga and mindfulness, meal planning and study routines.
Those lessons are not necessarily taught in the classroom, but “are essential to being a healthy, well-adjusted adult in the world,” Billings said.
“While it’s important that we’re pursuing our goals, it’s also important that we’re taking care of ourselves in the process,” Fields said.
Part of the vision for the Bezos Scholar program is that community change projects should be sustainable. Even though Fields graduates this year, the POP Festival is just getting started.
Billings and Fields have brought together a team of students who will carry the career fair on through future years. The team now is mostly comprised of freshmen and sophomores.
Fields said writing purpose statements has brought out the personalities of the core members of the POP Festival group.
“It provides them some confidence in that it gives them some clarity and really reflect on who they are and align that with what they want to do,” Billings said. “We teach kids what they ‘should’ know in school, but they also need to know themselves.”
“Knowing ‘what’ they want to do is just as important as knowing ‘why’ they want to do it,” Fields added. “It’s grounding.”
WANT TO HELP?
For community members interested in helping with the POP Festival, opportunities are available to show support.
Facilitators are needed for empowerment workshops: financial literacy, study habits and routines, SAT/ACT prep.
Local businesses and organizations are also invited to participate as vendors, showcasing opportunities for students after graduation.
There are also opportunities to sponsor the event.
Contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more information.
Follow along with the festival on Instagram @bc_popfestival.
