By Madeline Pulliam, Co-Staff Development Director
College and Career Transition (CCT) is a required class for students during their junior year. Due to the new mixed-model schedule this school year, the curriculum changed to foster a unified feeling for students and cover more material in depth.
CCT class time increased from meeting two times every six days to every “Garnet” or “Gray” day for one semester. Danielle Sculley-Ellett, Conestoga’s only CCT teacher, and mental health specialist Dr. Christine Dunleavy adjusted the curriculum before the 2024-25 school year.
“In years past, what really dictated the course was that we had the cycle-day schedule where I could really only see kids two times per six days,” Sculley-Ellett said. “We built a curriculum based off the timing that we had, and a lot of it was very college-centered in terms of post-secondary (education). Some of the topics that we’re still doing today are pretty much the same topics that we did, but now we just have more time.”
Topics that are covered in the class include financial literacy, post-secondary career and education options, signs of depression and suicide and the college application process. Material also involves completing four Pennsylvania high school graduation requirements through the site SmartFutures.
Changes include students maintaining a notebook of CCT concepts as well as participating in more community building activities. Sculley-Ellett hopes to teach more “soft skills” during classes, such as active learning, and emphasize material related to healthy relationships in work and personal settings.
“I want to make sure that throughout the course I’m trying to build better social connection,” Sculley-Ellett said. “The reason why is that if you look at when you establish healthy relationships, healthy relationships are basically at the center of all of our societal interactions. So in the past, where I may have taught healthy relationships for two days, now it’s going to be interwoven throughout the course.”
Senior Isabella Florendo took CCT last year and found material in the course helpful for college applications and relaxation techniques. She feels that the expanded focus on relationships is beneficial for high school students.
“I do think there should be an emphasis on healthy relationships because high school is really hard,” Florendo said. “I think learning when a relationship becomes toxic between friends and knowing if it’s a true friend is important to know.”
Sculley-Ellett is optimistic about the expanded course aiding students as well as the additional time to interact with them.
“I love teaching the course. I love that we’re going to expand it a little bit more,” Sculley-Ellett said. “I really enjoyed the last two years very much so. But, I am looking forward to having more time with students because I think that will give me a little bit more time to build deeper personal relationships with students as well as really get them excited about adulting.”
Madeline Pulliam can be reached at [email protected].
