Knowledgeable mentors available in Career and Academic Centers
By Claire Alongi,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–
Books aren’t the only things in the Davis High Library that provide knowledge. Nestled behind the stacks and study tables are two places where students not only learn, but get to interact with helpful mentors.
Welcome to the Career Center and Academic Center, home to Julie Clayton and the UC Davis interns, respectively.
Inside the Career Center, Clayton sits at her desk. The room around her is an explosion of color: college banners and posters don the walls, pamphlets of all shapes and sizes line the tops of of shelves containing SAT and ACT prep books. Clayton’s enthusiasm for her job mirrors the vibrancy of the room.
“The Career Center, really most career centers at high schools are designed […] to help students prepare for life after high school. That’s kind of the big concept,” Clayton says. As she continues to speak, she turns her chair to point out different signs and describes how the Career Center helps students navigate the college application process, figure out financial aid, research study abroad programs and even look into military options.
It is clear Clayton is passionate about helping the students of DHS
“Well, it’s really rewarding. It’s really fun to able to help high school students figure out what they want to do after high school. And help them find money to pay for college. All of that is really fun. And satisfying to be able to help people launch their life,” Clayton says.
A little ways down from the Career Center lies the Academic Center. Throughout the day, students can be found spilling out of the room and spreading out on tables with their tutors. One such tutor is Jaqueline Hernandez, a human development major with a minor in Chicano studies.
Hernandez knows she wants to go into the teaching field, but has just transferred from an elementary school to DHS and is still “iffy about what grade level [she wants to work with].”
Hernandez and the other tutors help students with any subject, but that’s where the tutors’ similarity stops.
“We have a civil engineer major, we have an alum that’s here and then we have an economics major, so we’re all from different backgrounds so that helps for the students to see we’re all unique in our own way,” Hernandez says.
Drop by the Career Center or Academic Center during school to meet some of these kind and helpful people.
