I hope that you all had a festive and restful short break last week filled with good food and time with family! As we gear up for finals and our final holiday break of the year, I want to share some celebrations and resources to finish 2024 out strong.

This week, five Seniors completed their final lab days to earn their certification in Skid Steer Operation and Asphalt Roller Operation through the Lawson State Community College Skills for Success program. We had a great time learning from Carl Roan, who shared many stories from his long career in construction while teaching us the basics of operating this equipment. Over the course of 3 days, students learned about appropriate safety procedures and how to check the machine before operating it, and practiced scooping, laying, and compressing gravel across a job site. We even had the opportunity to practice our finesse and aim by squishing some pumpkins!

These certifications will allow these students to be more marketable when applying for careers within the construction trades, and offered them the opportunity to try out a job site and working environment similar to what they may encounter in this field. We will offer some additional equipment training courses in the spring semester, an possibly offer OSHA certification as well.

This month our career spotlight is focused on career pathways within the skilled trades, manufacturing, and transportation. This broad umbrella includes careers such as electricians, line workers, carpentry and construction trades, HVAC, plumbing, heavy equipment operation, truck driving, welding, and more! Many of these fields have what O*Net considers a "bright outlook," meaning that the fields are expected to have considerable growth and provide many job openings in the next decade.

These career fields have a lot of benefits and opportunities, including:

• The ability to work outdoors in an active, hands-on setting.
• The opportunity to work with a team to create something tangible, such as constructing a building, vehicle, or other product that can serve the community.
• A quick training and onboarding process-- many careers will hire and train students straight out of high school, and others provide an apprenticeship pathway that allows you to work and earn money while learning the trade.
• The ability to earn a living wage and benefits right away-- particularly if you join a union.
• The option of earning overtime pay, which can be sometimes 50% or two times above regular pay.

This Friday, we will have a Career Café guest from Lawson State Community College join us to speak with students about training programs they offer that can help students get started in these exciting career fields. Students can sign up to attend here.

MCAA has established a partnership with Varsity Tutor, a well-known national resource for providing academic support, on-demand chat tutoring, and test preparation. The resources on this site are offered to MCAA students and families completely for free, and can be accessed by logging into Clever. I am including a brief tutorial video to share login instructions, as well as some of the features that students are able to access. Please let me know if you have any questions-- I am happy to help support students in taking advantage of this excellent free resource!

The FAFSA is open! Remember that the state of Alabama requires all students to complete the FAFSA form or a waiver form in order to qualify for graduation. This important process is the first step to qualifying for financial aid in a university, community college, or training program. If you or your family need support in completing this, please reach out to me to schedule a meeting any time! My email is s.munkachy@mcaabhm.org

December ACT Next Weekend, Dec 14! Several Seniors registered with me last month to take the ACT in December, and it is fast approaching! Please remind your student to be preparing for this important date by reviewing practice tests, taking advantage of Varsity Tutor self-paced or bootcamp resources, and ensuring they have completed all pre-testing items on their myACT account. If you are not sure if your student registered with me, please reach out and I can tell you. I will also be offering to cover registration fees for students for the February test as well, and will let you know when we schedule our registration day.

REMINDER: Share acceptance letters with me! I am continuing to build out our shout-out wall on the 2nd floor, and would love to celebrate EVERY acceptance that your student has received! This is also an important record-keeping process for me, as I work to document and support your students' decisions and further applications for financial aid or scholarships. Students can either send a screenshot of an email, or a scanned copy of their official letter-- really anything that shares their admissions decision. I redact all personal information and change any dead names before including it on our shout-out wall.