About 450 eighth-graders from Palo Verde Middle School in Phoenix received more than just a tour of the GCU campus on their visit Tuesday morning.
Before walking the grounds, the students met in the North Gym to complete a basic personality and interest inventory, prepared by Career Services and designed to help them zero in on their purpose.
Advising the students that “now is the time to prepare,” Dr. Mary Askew of Career Services led them through the Holland Career Model, which funnels survey takers into one of six categories: conventional, enterprising, social, artistic, realistic and investigative.
“Middle school, high school and college will go by fast,” Askew told the group. “The job you look for should match who you are. You need to know where you’re going.”
Carrie Hale, a language-arts teacher at Palo Verde, said the timing couldn’t be better for the students, who have been to career fairs but hadn’t completed such an inventory previously.
“It’s a perfect time for this,” Hale said. “Going into high school, they need to have in their mind the direction they want to go. If they don’t, it can be very hit-and-miss.”
Palo Verde, north of Glendale and 39th avenues, feeds into three high schools in the Glendale Union district: Apollo, Washington and Cortez.
Facilitating the campus tour was Admissions Manager Nicole Porter and other staff.
