Author: Alexa Cairns

School clubs are an amazing way to get involved and gain life experience, learn, and lead into jobs in the future. By taking part in these clubs and teams, you have a better chance at getting a job in that area.

For example, by taking part in a group such as student council or student government, you are learning substantial information about politics, governments, running events, and more. These can be extremely important qualities to have learned about and experienced depending on what field of work you end up in. Joining the student body at school can make chances of you getting a job higher because you learn valuable, lifelong skills and lessons.

If you are interested in entering the arts, we suggest joining the club that fits your interest. For visual art students, some schools have an arts club where they teach and practice various forms of visual art. This gives students a glimpse of what they will be doing in their future jobs. For musical students, there is a wider variety of clubs available at most schools. There is typically a marching band or a concert band, a jazz band, choir, and some schools also offer soloists or small groups to perform at concerts. These are an amazing way to prepare yourself for the future, especially in terms of performances due to the fact that performing is an important part of music. These clubs are excellent to include on resumes.

If you enjoy engineering, construction, science and math, robotics is a great club for you to join. You have the opportunity to learn about these things through building robots. This is a fun learning experience that also happens to be an amazing way to lead to a job in the future. Including this on your resume shows people that you are familiar with using computers and technology.

STEAM is perhaps the best club to join if you’re concerned about it leading to a job. The STEAM club stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. If you are interested in any of those things, we strongly encourage you to join this club that is offered at most high schools. Some schools have a STEM club which is the same thing, just without the arts incorporated into it. This club teaches you about working on a team, and about different aspects of all the subjects in the name of the club. This experience is definitely one to take part in, and is something that appeals to people searching for jobs in these areas of work.

Lastly, if you are interested in pursuing a career in sports, athletics or kinesiology, sports teams are the way to go. Most schools offer a wide variety of sports teams including basketball, volleyball, football, soccer, field hockey and a swim team. Depending on the sport you’re interested in pursuing as a career, we suggest joining that team to increase the likelihood of you getting a job or being recruited for that sport.

No matter what career path you are interested in taking, there is most likely a club that can help you get a job in that area in the future. Make sure to remember this when you are deciding whether or not to join or try out for clubs this year.

Sources:

1. https://gocoderz.com/blog/3-things-kids-can-learn-robotics-program/
2. https://medium.com/@HelpfulScience/how-and-why-do-you-run-a-science-stem-steam-club-9d245c97c027

https://blog.prepscholar.com/list-of-extracurricular-activities-examples

In 1848, the women’s suffrage movement began. Females all across New York State joined together to stand up for themselves and their rights as human beings. Since then, we as a society have come a long way with women’s rights. However, we still face significant challenges daily, especially in the workplace. There are countless ways in which women experience this, some including sexual violence in the workplace and unequal pay. Many women also face discrimination, especially when it comes to leadership roles and promotions.

Studies have shown that approximately 8/10 women experience sexual violence in the workplace in their lifetimes. This affects women daily, and it is something that is less commonly experienced with men. Through the recent #metoo movement, millions of women all around the world have had the courage to voice their experiences with sexual harassment, and therefore this issue has been vocalized significantly more than before. Women have been terrified to go into work; a place that is supposed to be safe, and a place of business; a place we have to go in order to make a living. Workplaces are supposed to be a professional, safe place, and it is long overdue for significant change.

Another way women are treated unfairly in the workplace is their pay. The majority of people are still blind or willfully ignorant to the fact that men still earn more money than women. The law in most places state that everyone must have equal pay despite their gender. However, this isn’t being followed by most companies around the world. It has been said that for every dollar men make, women make approximately 79 cents. When added up to what various genders make annually, men make a significant amount more than women. Females are constantly facing inequality, quite frequently without their knowledge of it.

In terms of discrimination with leadership roles and promotions, females are not represented nearly enough as they would be if the workplace had a truly gender-equal environment. The stereotype that men are stronger, more powerful leaders is constantly displayed within the workplace, and therefore has a negative, unfair effect on business-women.

William Keepin, co- author of Divine Duality: The Power of Reconciliation Between Women and Men states, writes “In all societies, both women and men are powerfully conditioned to repress the daily realities of (sexual harassment and workplace glass ceilings) and to collude with the rest of society in keeping these dimensions of shared experiences hidden.” With that, I strongly believe that gender-inequality is a major issue in the workplace. The best way to combat these gender inequalities is to start examining and changing policy and human rights laws that deal with inequalities across the board so everyone can truly feel the effects of an equal, all- inclusive society/world.

Sources:

1. https://iwpr.org/publications/sexual-harassment-work-cost/
2. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/02/heres-how-much-men-and-women-earn-at-every-age.html
3. https://ywcavan.org/blog/2018/09/gender-equality-workplace-where-are-our-female-leaders

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/sexual-harassment

The idea of returning to school after a long, relaxing summer is never overly enthralling. Students usually tend to dread the idea of going back; so much so that the word ‘school’ can’t even be spoken. It seems like a lot of students nowadays have a very negative perception of school. Not all, but most. I’ll admit, I wasn’t very excited to go back at all. It’s admittedly quite difficult to get back into the routine of school; you have to get up early and get ready to leave for school where you have to learn. I’m pretty sure that anyone would choose their warm comfy bed over a boring classroom. School may not be very exciting at times but that doesn’t mean it’s all bad.

This year, I am going into Grade 11. I think that’s one of the reasons why I was apprehensive going back; time is moving very fast and I am fearful that I can’t keep up with everything. I also know that this year is going to be a challenging fight to win. Going into a new grade can be both scary and exciting; you don’t know if you’ll have any friends in your classes, or if you can continue to keep your grades up. You also go back to school knowing that each year will be at least a little bit more challenging than the other, especially in high school. You want to be able to get into a good University so that you can have a good future. Every year you constantly put the pressure on yourself. Sometimes you may not even feel motivated to get back to work, especially after the summer. Here I have provided some tips on how to keep a positive mindset during the school year.

Establish a routine: Creating a routine for school mornings and nights always makes going back to school much easier. That way, you can create time for everything. I would suggest setting an alarm for the morning (or maybe 5 because getting up in the morning is extremely hard). Try and go to bed at a decent hour especially for back to school because studies show that teenagers between the ages of 14-17 need at least 9-11 hours of sleep to properly function. Otherwise, you get sleepier and can’t perform properly with your studies. Sleep is also known to reduce stress levels so it is important that you get a good bit of sleep during the school year.

Take Care Of Yourself: I don’t know if everyone is like this but when I am in school, my main focus is school, and school only. I am not the best at taking care of myself during the school day, whether it be the small things like chapped lips or dirty glasses, I tend to get bothered easily during school because I am still a bit tired. I suggest to bring a small bag of items you may need during school: a small pack of tissues, chapstick, glasses cloth (if you wear glasses), maybe a small snack so that you do not get too hungry during class. Don’t just take care of yourself physically but also, mentally. School is one of the leading causes of anxiety and stress in teens. It’s important that you take your mental health into consideration during school. Don’t push yourself too much and cause a lot of stress and anxiety on yourself. There are many ways to cope with stress and anxiety during school: meditation, sleep, keeping organized, exercising which can be good for both your physical and mental health. Or, you could just try and confide in a friend or trusted adult to feel better, talking about your feelings is always helpful.

Focus On The Positives: Everything in life has a positive side to it. Nothing’s all bad. During the school year try and look past all the stress and anxiety you may be feeling. Look at the future and how much the hard work that you are doing will pay off in the end. School is not all that bad, it can be fun too. You get to spend a lot more time with your friends and get to see them more often-this might not be the case when you graduate and people go their separate ways.

Websites used:

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/sleep/sleep–needs–get–the–sleep–you–need.htm

https://www.verywellmind.com/top–school–stress–relievers–for–students-3145179