On November 2nd, Nebraska Extension hosted a Connecting the Dots event at the Alliance High School for Box Butte County sophomore students. This event puts youth through a simulation where they have to navigate being high school dropouts, lack funding to pay for school, have a full ride to their chosen college, or anything in between. They meet with community professionals to explore jobs in each of the career clusters. The morning was spent having the youth evaluate what makes a good resume, practice answering interview questions, and learning their motivated skills. This program was funded by Platte Valley Bank, Sandhills State Bank, bank of the West, and First Interstate Bank, and Westco. The event would not have been possible without all the community members who helped with the simulation. These members included Lee Fritzler, Shane Homan, Nick Paradeis, Jared Mracek, Dawn Butcher, Zach Jelinek, Chelsie Herian, Kyren Gibson, Colleen Hood, Jessica Kaiser, Trevor Rasmussen, Pasha Korber, Olivia Hasenauer, Chris Stine, Sean Ridgeway, Jeff Harris, Trish Johnston, Charles Miles, Allie Tyree, and Cassandra Wood. The event also would not be possible without the help from Western Nebraska Community College, Chadron State College, and University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Nebraska Extension is thankful for the assistance of Alliance Public Schools for helping host this event. One student commented, “...you helped me learn so much about my future career path. I cannot thank you enough for supporting my understanding of my future career!”.
