College & career exploration
It's not too early to start looking forward toward your future! Check out the following college/career tools and feel free to talk to your counselors about it.
Naviance Family Connection
Naviance is a college/career tool provided to all middle and high school students in IUSD. Students can take career interest assessments, research college information, learn about careers, and more! To log in, students use their school login information (username: graduation year, last name, first name; password: long ID #)
College Board Big Future
The College Board offers students information on college planning, college/career searches, and paying for college.
California Career Zone
This career exploration website has great tools to learn more about yourself, occupations you might be interested in, and planning for financial success. Try the "Make Money Choices" activity to learn about budgeting!
Visit a Local College
California is home to over 750 higher education institutions, the largest number compared with all the states! Many schools welcome students and their families to visit; check campus websites for tours and visitor information.
Naviance Family Connection
Naviance is a college/career tool provided to all middle and high school students in IUSD. Students can take career interest assessments, research college information, learn about careers, and more! To log in, students use their school login information (username: graduation year, last name, first name; password: long ID #)
College Board Big Future
The College Board offers students information on college planning, college/career searches, and paying for college.
California Career Zone
This career exploration website has great tools to learn more about yourself, occupations you might be interested in, and planning for financial success. Try the "Make Money Choices" activity to learn about budgeting!
Visit a Local College
California is home to over 750 higher education institutions, the largest number compared with all the states! Many schools welcome students and their families to visit; check campus websites for tours and visitor information.
How to Explore careers more
Think you want to become an artist, engineer, sports player, politician, teacher, or other future career? Find out more about the career! Here are some ideas to consider.
- Interview someone who does this job (This is often an 8th grade English project, but you can do it separately on your own outside of school too if you'd like.)
- 1) Respectfully ask friends, family, counselors/teachers if they know someone who is in the career you are interested in that you can interview
- 2) Set up a meeting time with this person, with the help of your parents
- 3) Interview them, asking questions such as "What do you do in your career on a typical day?", "What is your favorite part about your job?", "What is your least favorite part?", and "How did you get to this career?"
- 4) Thank everyone for their help!
- Visit and "shadow" someone at their job
- Just like a shadow follows whatever someone does, you can ask for the opportunity to "shadow" someone at their job. By observing what their the day really looks like, you can better understand a career.