Adulting 101 on the Streets of New Hampton

This week, seniors at New Hampton participated in an Adulting 101 day sponsored by Iowa BIG North. Seniors worked through a month in the life of a 28 year old, based on their future plans. Students completed surveys earlier in the term where they made personal lifestyle choices and also listed their post-secondary plans.

Seniors began the day on campus and quickly hit the streets for appointments with banks, realtors, insurance agents and financial planners. Groups were created based on career clusters so students travelled with groups of 3-6 throughout the community.









As part of the experience, all students made a stop in the Iowa BIG North office to work with staff from the school and community on balancing budgets, adding up their grocery lists, and setting up payment plans for auto, home and college loans.

Through discussion around debt, credit scores and wrinkles that were randomly drawn, students came to realize that they needed to make some financial adjustments.  The most commonly heard response in working through budgets was, "I am not going to have enough money." Through this process, students were able to make some calculated decisions about items that could go and items that had to stay in their budgets.

Although there were a few tears about how to balance children, lifestyles, unexpected fees and bills that students were not sure of yet, the day is alway productive in giving a snapshot of what may be waiting for them.  Some will make adjustments now knowing what they want in ten years and some were able to start making those changes starting today.  A big thank you to IBN students and staff as well as our multiple business partners who worked with nearly 100 students during the day. We look forward to continuing to grow this event.

From the Middle: 4th Quarter Has Begun!

Students Enjoy Learning Opportunities Outside New Hampton: 

In the past week we have had several learning opportunities for students outside of New Hampton.  Our 5th grade students went to Des Moines to visit the Capital and Science Center.  While there students we able to learn about our State government and do many cool hands-on activities.

Our 8th graders went to Washington D.C. While on the D.C. trip, students were able to see many of the National Monuments and bring history to life.  Below are a few of the posts from Facebook:

Some 8th grade students didn't make the trip to Washington D.C.  While the others were gone, students learned about other potential careers and life skills.  Students learned about opportunities in our community and how to help out.  Students also learned about the National Monuments the others were seeing first hand and the importance to our country.

Project Based Learning in the Content Area: 

Teachers:  Mrs. Olson, Ms. Snyder, Mrs. Sinnwell

Topic:  Ancient Egypt and the impact on today.

Driving Question: How has ancient Egyptian culture influenced modern-day society?

Project Summary:   In math students will be building pyramids using surface area/ nets, in literacy class they will be researching information on a topic that they have chosen and write a compare and contrast essay, while in social studies students have been busy learning about various topics in regards to Egypt and will create a project to show what they have researched and learned.  Students are presenting their topics to 5th graders based on interest.

Networking and Opportunity Fair

On Wednesday, NHHS, NICC and Iowa BIG North hosted a Networking and Opportunity Fair. During this 2 and a half hour event, students in 11th and 12th grade came with their resumes to explore future options, look at summer jobs, and see what the greater Chickasaw County community could offer for business and industry in their career interest areas.

 Students began their days in a type of "speed dating" with representatives from over 40 business and industries in and around New Hampton.  Students had three rounds of dating in matched areas.  IBN students and staff worked through the winter on aligning juniors and seniors with areas in which they plan to work in the future.

For the second portion of the day, student participated in panels of employers from mixed areas about the why of choosing New Hampton, skills needed in the workplace and how to prepare yourself for the world of work.

Students and employers ended the morning with an open networking session where they could re-connect and also visit booths they may not have speed dated with in the early session.  What a great opportunity to connect for all those who participated!