DATE: Monday, November 3, 1997              TAG: 9711030055

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY KIA MORGAN ALLEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   63 lines

CAREER CENTER WIDENS CHURCHLAND STUDENTS' HORIZONS

``What do you want to do with your life?''

Ask some teens that question and you might hear ``sipping,'' ``sun'' and ``surfing'' all in the same sentence.

However, Kisha Doles is a 17-year-old exception. The Churchland High School senior has her sights set on becoming a computer engineer. It's a male-dominated field, but she's done enough research to know that she can make a difference.

With the help of a new Career Counseling Center, Doles and many other Churchland High students can sift through loads of literature about the best colleges, the toughest military branches, and careers that may be compatible.

The career center helps to give Churchland students an early employment outlook. There are tons of brochures available from the Department of Labor on what the best jobs are and what type of educational training beyond high school is needed to land one.

Nancy Coner, assistant principal of the school, said having the career center will help to tie the district's academic initiative to a career focus.

``We want to let the kids know that they will have to go beyond high school for additional training,'' she said. ``They need to explore a number of different careers, and this will get them thinking.''

The center, opened two weeks ago, was funded partly by a ``High Schools That Work'' federal grant.

But most of the $5,000 startup cost for the center came from the school's improvement team and some other local gift-givers, said Shirley George, the center's career counselor.

Before the center's arrival, Coner said, students had to search throughout the school's library and go to their guidance counselor to get information about jobs.

``The information was just scattered about.''

Now, with two computers, a television and VCR, books and occupational literature housed in a conference room, there's a place where the Churchland Truckers can make a pit stop and get the knowledge they need about careers.

``For the first time that I can remember, we got all of the materials for careers and college in one location,'' said Raymond Hale, principal.

``Our job is to prepare kids for life after high school, and this tells them what's out there and what's available to them. I'm tickled to death with it.''

Students can visit the center during the early part of the day at the school, since the facility is only open half a day. There are student workers on staff and a career counselor. They help students locate literature or videos to look at in their leisure.

``It's an easy system. It's not time-consuming, and you can do it yourself,'' said Doles, who visits the center daily.

The center is popular among Churchland students and staff. Already some 175 students have utilized its resources, and teachers have brought in classes to show off the center and tell about its benefits.

Even alumni have returned to the school to research information about occupations, said George.

George, who has been working on the center since last year, said she'd like to get its computers connected to the Internet so that students could search for job information or register for their Scholastic Achievement Tests online. ILLUSTRATION: MARK MITCHELL

The Virginian-Pilot

Traci Grimsley and Nicholas Waun...

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu