Big Brothers Big Sisters: A Post-High School Resource Guide
By: Jennifer L. Finn and Mike P. Posteraro Jr.
This project aimed to provide a step-by-step guide for high school students to ease the burden on figuring out post-high school plans. Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Harrisburg makes it their mission to “create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships” for their youth. It cannot be assumed that all teens have access to the resources they need to navigate the uncertainty of post high school planning. Therefore by providing a resource manual with steps needed to successfully narrow down an individual’s interests and meet the requirements of each of the three most common post high school paths, we felt that we could account for this need.
Social Justice Needs: Inner City Youth of Harrisburg
Big Brothers/Big Sisters (BBBS) provides mentorship to children between the ages of 6 to 18, who need positive role models, to help them realize their potential and build their futures (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2020). Within the workplace, having a childhood ethical role models were the most commonly reported type of ethical role model by ethical leaders, and childhood modeling showed the strongest positive relation on ethical leadership (Brown & Treviño, 2014). According to Big Brothers/Big Sisters, studies show that children who have role models are more likely to improve in school and in their relationships with family and friends. They also state that children with role models are less likely to skip school, use illegal drugs or alcohol, drop out of school, or commit crimes (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2020). Researchers found that mentors show a strong net influence on educational success for children and youth (Erickson et al., 2009). Mentors provide positive effects on successful health promotion and overweight prevention interventions for low-income, African American adolescents residing within urban communities (Black et al., 2012). This is important because Harrisburg city’s population is made up of 51.8% of Black or African Americans (United States Census Bureau, 2020), the median household income in Harrisburg, PA is $35,300, the median property value is $82,100, and the poverty rate is 29.9% (Data USA, 2020). At the same time, only 72.10% of Black or African American children in PA graduate from high school compared to 92.5% for Asians and 90.4% for Whites (Department of Education, 2020). Also, only 20.2% of adolescents in Harrisburg, PA graduate from a 4-year college (United States Census Bureau, 2020).
Big Brothers/Big Sisters’ programs include community-based mentorship consisting of one-on-one activities with children, school-based, helping children with incarcerated parents, children of military families, and a “Bigs in Blue” programs involving one-on-one mentorship connecting children and youth with police in their communities (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2020). After they stated that they needed a resource guide to provide a template on how to pursue their post-high school aspirations, we got to work because resources are one of the many aspects that impacts the effectiveness of mentorship (Erickson et al., 2009). Subsequently, the Big Brother/Big Sisters Resource Guide was born.
Theoretical Rationale: Holland & Super
The two career theories that align with this resource guide and our population’s needs are Holland’s Theory & Super’s Life-Span, Life Space Theory.
Holland’s theory postulates that there are six personality types – Realist, Investigative, Artistic, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC). Holland also talks about a term called consistency where he assumes that people want their highest personality types to be adjacent to each other. So, when people take an interest assessment, similar to the one included in our guide, they want their personality types to be next to each other. Another assumption is that people search for environments that suit their interests. Furthermore, Holland asserts that people strive for congruence, which is the degree of match between a person’s personality type and environment’s personality. Interventions include receiving feedback from one’s environment to discover interest/preferred activities and competence and getting students to think about their interests and careers. Conversely, Holland believed that people’s personalities stay the same and he didn’t explicitly provide a guide on how to offer support guidance (Department of Education, 2020).
Super’s Life-Span, Life Space theory supplements the facets that Holland didn’t explain. Super’s theory professes that people’s personalities, abilities, values, self-concept, and preferred occupations. Simultaneously, Super coined the term “career maturity.” This refers to one’s decision-making readiness in childhood and adolescence. Incidents that can affect career maturity include language barriers, trauma, socialization, and available resources.
Additionally, Super stated that one’s (Jones, 2019) vocational development is dependent on their self-concept, which is developed through experience and over time. Furthermore, Super postulated that people progress through life stages. During the growth stage, adolescents learn decision-making and competence. During the exploration stage, people develop a realistic self-concept and explore occupations. Interventions operate under the concept that people prefer careers in which they can find satisfaction in expressing themselves and develop their self-concept. They include helping students identify and set goals, clarify their self-concept, and expose them to a plethora of careers – Providing resources and knowledge of career choices (Department of Education, 2020).
Resources You’ll Need
The biggest thing you will need for the resource manual is a computer with internet access in order to access the required sites that are noted in the resource guide. Depending on the route the client decides to take, will dictate the resources they will need to utilize. For the college route, access to collegeboard for SAT registration will be essential. Though, this resource will not be relevant for the trade school or military route. The college route will also require access to PHEAA, FAFSA, the commonapp, and the specific university of interest’s website. The trade school route will also require access to PHEAA and FAFSA, but in addition will require access to tradeschool.net and the trade school of interest’s website. Lastly, the military route will require a different direction for internet. For an individual that chooses to enter a branch of the military, they will need to utilize the listed websites in the manual in order to obtain recruiter information for the specific branch. Information on the requirements for these specific branches will note additional websites needed to apply. Other materials will include access to study materials such as SAT prep books, ASVAB study materials, and a gym membership for military fitness exams.
Delivering to Big Brothers Big Sisters
Prior to the COVID-19 quarantine, the initial plan for delivering the resource manual to BBBS was through an in-person experience. We aimed to meet with Amy Rote and some of the available teens to present a kit that included a printed and bounded
copy of the resource manual, Penn State stress balls, and motivational quotes.Though, the sanctions of quarantine made this plan unfeasible. Therefore, we opted for a digital delivery of the manual to Amy Rote via email upon the completion of the final project. We also included information of social justice needs and theoretical rationale behind our manual for her to use when she presents the resource manual to mentors and mentees.
Expected Outcomes
In order to track the outcomes and impact of our resource guide, a longitudinal study or retrospective study would be best to measure this data accurately. We would need to keep track of who utilizes the resource manual as a post high school planning tool and follow up with them after their post-high school planning was complete and they had begun whatever post high school endeavor they chose. This retrospective study would evaluate the ease of comprehension, the usefulness, and the accuracy of the resource manual when initiating post high school plans. A longitudinal study would be a good way to track the success rate of students who utilized the resource manual versus students who had not utilized the resource manual.