- April 24, 2024
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When Melanie Stern asked a group of Freedom Elementary School fourth graders to guess her age, she had several different responses.
One student thought she was 29.
“Oh, well thank you,” Stern said.
Four students thought she was 41.
“OK, that’s close,” Stern said.
Another thought she was 79.
“That’s way off,” Stern said with a laugh.
When Stern revealed she was 45, the students who guessed close to her actual age cheered.
The age guessing game was part of the first impression exercise Stern did with the class for Project TEACH, or Teach Everyone About Career Horizons.
Project TEACH is a partnership between the Manatee Chamber of Commerce and the School District of Manatee County that brings business professionals from around the county into fourth grade classrooms to help students explore different career opportunities while also learning about the importance of first impressions.
This year, volunteers went into 147 classrooms across Manatee County elementary schools.
Stern went on to share more about herself and her career as a director of human resources for logistics for Bealls.
“It was amazing,” Stern said. “The energy of the students and the engagement they had was wonderful. They’re inquisitive and very open to learning as well, which was great.”
Fourth graders had the opportunity to share their dream jobs. Some students wanted to go into the military, others wanted to become fashion designers while other students wanted to enter the medical field.
“You can tell that everyone is coming from a different background,” Stern said. “It’s truly influenced by where they live, how they grew up and everyone wants to be unique, which is wonderful. We have protectors out there, we have teachers out there, we have designers out there. We have a bright future.”
The students were tasked with creating their own business cards. They had to come up with their own businesses, their job titles and contact information.
Four Freedom Elementary School fourth graders shared their dreams for future careers.
Ethan Conner wants to follow in the family business at CRC Technologies, a company that helps clients with project management, engineering, business systems and more. Conner’s grandfather, Charles Conner, started the company in 1996.
“I feel like I’ve always wanted to get into science more,” Conner said.
When he grows up, Conner hopes to become CEO and help his family’s company expand to have more clients and impact more areas.
Anna Collins dreams of starting an organization that protects turtles, her favorite animal.
“One day I realized turtles don’t get as much attention, and the leatherback turtles are almost gone,” Collins said.
Collins is ready to get started with her organization as a fourth grader. She’s working on making flyers to hand out at school and raise money.
Some day, Collins hopes to help leatherback turtles breed so they will no longer be endangered.
Although he’s not certain exactly what his future will hold, Jayden Li has an interest in becoming an engineer.
He loves science and math and is interested in learning how machines work.
“I think I’ll make a machine that can help people,” Li said.
Inspiration to become an engineer came from watching a YouTube video where he learned how some machines worked.
Li would like to create prosthetics to help those who are missing limbs.
“Maybe I can help kids who are in the hospital and are missing arms,” Li said.
Warber has spent years drawing and designing dresses with the dream of becoming a fashion designer.
“I want to see people wearing my dresses in movies,” Warber said.
Inspiration for Warber also came from YouTube. She watched videos of girls trying to make dresses and thought maybe she could do the same when she grows up.
“I want to design things that make people happy,” Warber said.
