High School is the last step before students are pushed into making life-changing decisions as fresh young adults. A process like this can be stressful which is why the local Malden YWCA came in collaboration with Malden High School to create the WorkSmart program. WorkSmart allows for underprivileged juniors and seniors to have an opportunity to explore their career identity.
In their weekly meetings, as WorkSmart’s manager, Cassandra LeBrun prepares workshops that help members connect deeper with themselves and what they hope to achieve in the future. “The main mission for WorkSmart is to help students to actually understand who they are so that they can get to a place of loving what they want to do and have longevity in their careers and even in college,” shared LeBrun.
Before working at the YWCA, LeBrun worked as Assistant Director of Recruitment and Employer Engagement at Northeastern University. Even though LeBrun enjoyed her work at Northeastern, she slowly realized that she preferred working one-on-one with students. She commented that she’s “very community oriented and driven” and because of that, “this role had the best of both worlds,” where she still got to connect with employees as well as students.
Not only does LeBrun manage the program, but Malden High counselor Kristy Magras also helps coordinate and recruit eligible students to participate. For three years now, Magras has been connecting with students and helping them build skills “beyond the classroom” which “helps them be successful in life.”
“I think that Malden High School is great at getting our students through high school and into college, but there’s a piece of it that is missing about, ‘what do we do after we graduate?’” noted Magras.
So far, the WorkSmart program has provided many students with internship and volunteer opportunities. For example, senior Leica Naceus wants to go into the medical industry when she graduates and with this program she was introduced to the Winchester Hospital program. “I get to work at a hospital, work with patients, bring things to doctors and everything and that actual connection building between me and Winchester is one hundred percent going to be beneficial later on in my life and much more,” explained Naceus.
To provide such wonderful opportunities, WorkSmart has tight funding in collaboration with MassHire, meaning that to apply there’s a specific criteria you need to fit. Magras shared that she hopes that students “utilize every opportunity that’s given to them, because it’s a program that is only offered to a select group of students. Again, these are things that would be beneficial to all students, but based on the grant funding, we can only approve a barrier.”
Although WorkSmart focuses on building your individual career identity, many students as well as staff learn valuable lessons in their time. “I learned that you should start thinking about your future even if you’re not totally sure about what you want to do, simply writing it out or thinking about it helps to think about it to prepare you even better,” mentioned junior Keira Celicourt.
“I learned so much from them, and they make me so proud, because I think they also taught me to go for it as well. Just even at my age, seeing them, that’s exactly how I was,” emphasized LeBrun, “I was doing all those things, but seeing seeing them now, do those things now, and how they show up for themselves in these workshops, I’m just like, ‘wow,’” she continued.
About the Author
