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The Bear
Misc. INFO.
Students learn about careers during January J-Term
8 Career Clusters C a r e er - b a s e d We d n e s d a y Fu n
Ava Hazelwood and Kya Montgomery
Staff Writers
The WBHS 2022 J-Term took a dif-
ferent turn this year to encourage students to
reach out for internships and to learn about ca-
reer opportunities. There were 8 different ca-
reer cluster J-Term classes available for
students to take. Each class had multiple dif-
ferent activivies prepared to teach the funda-
mentals of possible careers in that cluster.
The Architecture and Construction
(Randy Robertson, Renee Thompson) career
cluster focused on teaching about building
and getting a job in the trade. Some students
were able to take a field trip to Randy’s
Plumbing and Heating to learn more about
what they do day to day in their jobs.
Avery Schultes, a junior, said “My
favorite was ACE, maybe because it was
hands-on things, I'm not the type to work in
an office sitting all day.”
The Arts, A/V Tech and Communi-
cations (Beth Gallahger, Molly McCarthy)
cluster focused on the creativity of the stu-
dents. They did more things like reading the
school play, creating their own improv radio
show, acting as news reporters, and designing
their own business logo. This class stressed
the importance of coming out of your shell
and creating something true to you.
Keegan Hansen, a freshman, said “I
like Arts and A/V Tech, because we did cool
activities like making a costume design for a
certain person for the spring play and making
a logo for a business.”
Some career clusters provided a lot
of hands-on work, like the Health Science
cluster (Amanda Ohge, Kristen Westpheling).
This class taught the importance of healthcare
workers and what they do every day. Students
also got the chance to explore the surgeon ca-
reers by dissecting a fetal pig.
Diego Carillo, a sophomore, said
“Health Science was my favorite, I like the
experience of being in the Medical Field and
kind of has me set on the road of choosing my
job.”
The Education and Training (Erin
Brown, Annie Popkes) career cluster taught
about more than just teachers. It gave students
the opportunity to explore more careers that
work with education. Some classes were able
to take a field trip to the middle and elemen-
tary schools to see what teachers and associ-
ates work on at different levels.
Ashlynne Nash, a sophomore, said
“Education and training was my favorite be-
cause that was the one I wanted to take the
most. Everything we learned about was inter-
esting and engaging, and I could see myself
being in any of those jobs.”
The Hospitality and Tourism (Ly-
nette Cummings, Karina Krall) career cluster
taught about businesses that rely on strong
customer feedback to make revenue. Some
students were able to go one a field trip to
Main Street Sweets, where the school pro-
vided $4 per student to eat. This class taught
about many different career opportunities in
Fa c u l t y & C a r e er Clu s ter s
Peyton Braddock and Bri Hudson
Staff Writers
On January 4, when the students
came back from winter break, staff members
began teaching classes with different career
clusters for the students to explore during J-
Term. There were eight career clusters, and
each student got to explore six total.
The Health Science career cluster
was taught by Kristen Westpheling and
Amanda Ohge. This career cluster explored
different health science careers and taught stu-
dents the anatomy of a fetal pig.
Oghe explained how she was im-
pressed with her students after leading them
in the dissection. “I really enjoyed leading stu-
dents through the fetal pig dissection. I was
so impressed by the professional, scientific
exploration that students used to learn during
the experience as well as the many students
that were willing to give it a try even if they
were a little uneasy at first.”
Secondly, the Hospitality and Tour-
ism career cluster was taught by Karina Krall
and Lynette Cummings. This career cluster
explored careers that went with food and
drink service, event planning, catering, and
traveling. Krall talked about her favorite part
of her J-term. “My favorite part was the field
trip to Main St. Sweets to learn about restau-
rant ownership/management from Steven
Grace while his wife and co-owner Jessica
cooked for us or served us ice cream. I en-
courage the community members to support
this fine business!”
The STEM career cluster was
taught by John Walsh and Matt Cain. This ca-
reer cluster had explored Science, Technol-
ogy, Engineering, and Mathematics. Cain
recalled how he chose his career cluster. “I
chose it because I thought I could do the best
job in the area,” he said.
The Transportation, Distribution
and Logistics career cluster was taught by
Samuel Ogilvie and Abby Noelck. Their
cluster explored how workers move people
and products by road, air, railroad, and water.
Ogilvie mentioned how he and Noelck chose
their guest speakers to teach students about all
the different types of jobs that are out there in
their career cluster. “We tried to pick guest
speakers from a variety of disciplines within
our content area. They were all excellent at
providing us with insight into various careers
hospitality and tourism.
The Science, Technology, Engi-
neering, and Mathematics (John Walsh, Matt
Cain) career cluster was centered around
hands-on experiences with STEM skills. They
competed in an engineering design challenge
involving planning and building structures,
investigated statistics and the impact of math
education on career outcomes, and students
designed experiments to compete sending a
payload up on a weather balloon to around
100k feet.
Seth Cantrell said, “Stem was my
favorite, it is the most fun out of them all and
had the easiest challenges.”
The Transportation, Distribution
and Logistics (Abby Noelck, Sam Ogilvie)
career cluster is mainly concentrated on ve-
hicles. This class taught students about the
different careers that one can have focused
around delivery and transportation. They
taught about jobs like delivery drivers and pi-
lots.
Lastly, the Government and Public
Administration (Joe Betts, Chris Reed) career
cluster taught about the different kinds of gov-
ernment jobs. The class also talked about all
of the types of U.S government. There were
government jobs that someone wouldn’t typi-
cally think about, such as a lighthouse keeper.
There is a wide range of feedback
from students on this year’s J-Term. Keaton
Norfleet, a freshman, said, “I think we should
go back to the old J-Term. Sure it's not pro-
ductive, school-wise, but that is what J-Term
is. It's not supposed to be school. We need one
class instead of six.”
Luca Hahn, a freshman said, “I
would enjoy doing a career based J-Term
again next year because it gives you ideas of
what you want to do when you're older.”
The purpose for this year’s J-Term
was to encourage and provide students with
opportunities to explore careers. Many differ-
ent speakers were able to come to the school
and teach about their jobs day-to-day. J-Term
gave a chance for each student to get a hands
on experience with potential careers or taught
about it at school.
Logan Wright during the fetal pig dis-
section in the Health Science J-Term
Career Cluster. Photo by
and helped students understand more about
the day to day life of someone in our career
cluster.”
Erin Brown and Annie Popkes
chose to teach students about going into the
education field as a career cluster. Popkes
knew what she would've changed during J-
Term. “I would like the students to cycle
through fewer career clusters so that only the
students that actually have an interest or cu-
riosity in each field attend that class. That
way those students could also have a more in-
depth experience. It would also be easier to
plan guest speakers and field trips with fewer
groups.”
Teaching the government career
cluster was Joe Betts and Christopher Reed.
During the cluster, they taught the students
about common and uncommon government
jobs. Many different careers fall into the gov-
ernment path, including some you wouldn't
expect. They also learned about how the gov-
ernment affects society.
The Arts and Advanced Technology
was taught by Molly McCarthy and Elizabeth
Gallagher. They talked about theater and com-
munication in the Arts and AV Tech world.
McMcarthy let us in on some insight on how
she felt J-term went. “I would change the 2
day rotation. Some of the students did not get
the more dynamic speakers because the
speakers could not make it everyday.”
The ACE career cluster was taught
by Randy Robertson and Renee Thompson.
They showed students about different types of
jobs in the trades and in the agriculture indus-
try. Randy talked about how he had connec-
tions to guest speakers. “I have many
connections through years of teaching and
construction business. We had great speakers
discussing all aspects of their career area. Stu-
dents can see what is available to them and
possibly consider a career in the trades. They
all mentioned that finding a job would be very
easy because of the shortages of people in the
trades. We need more people getting involved
in these careers to fill the jobs.”
The staff are grateful for this oppor-
tunity to share new careers with their students
and be able to teach about topics they are in-
terested in. Although, they felt two days was
not enough time to help students thoroughly
understand the career. Students did learn tons
of new information about careers for future
internships.
Steven Grace
of Main St.
Sweets speaks
with students
about what it’s
like to own
and manage a
restaurant in a
small town
during Covid.
He spoke daily
with the Tour-
ism & Hospi-
tality groups..
Photo by Mad-
die Reed.
March 31, 2022
Brooklyn Nash and Keaton Norfleet Cantrell yelled, “Goodbye!” to the balloon
Staff Writers while waving at the camera attached to it after
the balloon launched.
On Wednesday, January 12, J-Term The balloon carried a small foam
students had a day full of career-based activ- platform. On top of the platform, Walsh had
ities to end J-term. The following activities in- tied down a GoPro camera, phone, GPS, and
cluded, “Can We Build It?”, “We’re Out of temperature. The group also decided to attach
Here!”, “Uh Oh! I’ve Got an Owie!”, “Tower two smaller balloons, one filled with helium,
of Success”, “Let’s Get Truckin’”, “Are You the other filled with atmospheric air, and a
Smarter Than A U.S. Citizen'', a marble run, marshmallow Peep.
and a dodgeball tournament to end the activ- “It should have been a cheese burger.” Brown
ities. Afterward, there was an end-of-day said.
Alumni panel. The balloon touched down around
The first activity of the day was, 6:45 pm the same day, and was retrieved the
“Can We Build It!”, which was hosted by next morning.
Randy Robertson and Renee Thompson, who Many students had likes and dislikes about the
ran the Architecture and Construction career last day's activities.
cluster, and was located in the gym. Students When asked what stu-
would hammer nails into a wooden board dents would rather do for the last day, fresh-
while only using one hand. The goal was to man Joshua Kroemer suggested, “Movies and
hammer in the nail without it bending. After games. Not so competition oriented.”
hammering, the students would move to a Junior Avery Shultice suggested her own ac-
new section of the activity. In this section, stu- tivity. “Some sort of relay race within your
dents would have to drill as many screws into group”
a wooden board as they could in one minute. When asked how the school could
The second activity of the day was, improve the last day's activities, freshman
“We’re Out of Here!” which was hosted by Keegan Hansen said, “Have more people do
Erin Brown and Miranda Schwickerath, in things, because a lot of people sat around all
Brown’s room. Students had thirty minutes to day.”
solve various codes, which would gain access Sophomore Cooper Burger said,
to a box. “‘Are You Smarter Than A U.S. Citizen’ was
“Uh Oh! I’ve Got An Owie!” was set up badly.”
the next activity, hosted by Kristen Weast- When asked what students liked
pheling and Amanda Ohge, located about the activities, ---- Jacob Swisher said,
Back in the gym, Matt Cain and “I liked the foil tower. It was fun to see unique
John Walsh hosted “Tower of Success”. Stu- ideas”
dents were given tin foil, and were instructed While most students did not find
to build the tallest foil tower without it fall- the last day activities satisfactory, some stu-
ing. dents found that the activities had other bene-
“Let’s get Truckin’” was hosted by fits.
Sarah Oswald in the gym. Students had short Jnior Karley Staker explained, “I
PVC pipes that were cut in half, and a marble. liked that we got to work with some people
The goal was for students to work as a team that we don't usually spend time with.”
to to create a bridge for the marble to travel
to the end of the gym. However, each team
had limited pipes, so students would have to
work quickly, or else the marble would fall to
the floor. The consequence of dropping the
marble, was starting back at the beginning of
the gym.
In the Bear Den, Christopher Reed
hosted the “Are You Smarter Than A U.S Cit-
izen?” test. Students would answer questions
on an online survey which would test their
knowledge of the United States.
The last activity of the day was the
dodgeball tournament. The study halls of each
class would compete against each other, and
winners would compete in the final rounds.
The winning team was Robertsons study hall.
After all the activities had been concluded,
students returned to the bleachers and awaited
the former students, who spoke at an alumni
panel. The alumni included two groups of stu-
dents. One group was of recently graduated
students, and the other was long-time gradu-
ates. Each group explained what their life was
like after school, and how they adjusted to a
new life. This concluded the last day of J-
Term.
At the end of the school day, STEM Dylan Highly competes in the dodge-
instructors, Walsh and Cain, launched a high- ball tournament on Wednesday, the
altitude weather balloon. The first one since
2016. The balloon was in the air for about four
final activity on Wednesday Fun Day.
Photo by Brooklyn Nash.
hours, and landed in Peoria, Illinois. Fresh-
man Zebulayn Brown and Seth Cantrell at-
tended the event, and launched the balloon.
Internships
Will Tidrick
Staff Writer
This year's J-Term offered a new internship program. Students had to work 40 hours
at the internship over the course of J-Term instead attending the normal career clusters, and
students that worked 60 hours were able to earn credit. Students had to finish a journal about
the internship each day. Students also had to receive a teacher recommendation before being
able to do an internship. The goal of the new program was to allow students a chance to work
at a job of their choice to get a feel of it as well as learn new skills they might not have learned
in school.
One hundred percent of the participating students said that the high school should
keep the internship program available for the years to come. After completing their internships,
90% of the participating students said they would be doing an internship again next year.
Many students spent their internships at the elementary school helping out the staff
there. Lexi Klinkkammer said, “My responsibility was to assist Mrs. [Angie] Miller with any-
thing she needed help with. I played games in the hall with small groups, read books to children,
played with them at recess, helped with math and multiplication facts and using rulers, etc.”
Many of the internships took place on farms or in mechanic shops. Kalvin Clemens
said, “I like working and restoring cars so this gave me more experience.” Clemens spent his
internship at Noel Automotive. Clemens’ responsibilities were to change oil, tires, and to sand
the different cars they had brought in.
Internships were not limited to being just within West Branch, some students spent
their time in other nearby towns like West Liberty, Tipton, and North Liberty. “I consulted with
the legal staff at the Hills and North Liberty Hills Banks. I chose this J-Term because I had an
interest in law,” said Emmersen Thomas. The internship helped Thomas figure out what kind
of attorney they might want to be.
Jade Gongora and Kar-
leigh Culver intern with
Barb Wargo in a WB kin-
dergarten class. Photo by
Maddie Reed.
Cadence Hansen learns
about selling real estate
from Marisa Stout. Photo
by Lennis Hasenbank.
Gavin Hills spends time at
the Iowa City Fire Depart-
ment. Photo by Lennis Ha-
senbank.