A new club is being introduced to Southmoreland High School for the 2015-16 school year by Biotechnology and STEM teacher Mr. Larry Ansell that will give students the opportunity to experience real world problems.

The Future Is Mine is a project that is made possible by The Consortium for Public Education, a nonprofit organization that works with more than 30 high schools. Their website describes this organization as “the most comprehensive career exploration and workforce development program serving Southwestern PA high school students.”

“The club is student driven and focuses on career and leadership readiness,” said Mr. Ansell. “The overall goal is to have students get experience in organizations and facilitating real world applications.”

There are three different types of projects that the club members will produce throughout the course of the year: peer to peer, peer to younger peer, peer to community, and individual. Each member is required to do an individual project that requires them to go through the job shadowing process while the club collectively will perform the remaining peer projects.

Ideas that the group has for the peer projects include a career fair, volleyball tournament, planting more trees along local walking trails, and Read Across America Day where the students will read a book to the Southmoreland Elementary students and teach them about the book topic chosen.

“I thought it would be a wonderful experience to get out there and help people,” said senior Larissa Suter. “I think the projects we will be doing will be a lot of fun.”

But this club is unlike many of the other clubs that Southmoreland students have been exposed to.

“You have to be willing to put in more time outside of school for the projects unlike a normal club like YEA,” said Mr. Ansell. “The projects are student based, so where the advisors usually take the point and lead, here this is more on the students.”

The club will end its season with the Annual TFIM Student Leadership Conference on April 21-22 when over 400 students and $80,000 come together to provide a social opportunity for students to not only meet with other students from different schools, but to also meet with college and business representatives throughout the Pittsburgh area. The students will get to spend the night at the Marriott Hotel with a formal dinner followed by a dance with the Career Fair taking place in the morning. Although the numbers are limited, Mr. Ansell hopes to take as many students as possible.

“I enjoy volunteering, and I wanted to be involved in creating group projects,” said senior Courtney Mitchell. “I want to get the satisfaction of helping people in the community in more ways than I thought I ever could.”

The 25-member club plans to start holding meetings during the school day to start planning their projects for the upcoming year.

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Bailey Geehring

I am a senior and a second year editor for the Tam O'Shanter. I will attend California University of Pennsylvania in the fall to pursue a career as a Speech-Language Pathologist.
"Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud"- Maya Angelou

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