Twenty-plus join Penquis Valley JMG Career Association

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    MILO — In the current school year, over 50 students in grades 9-12 at Penquis Valley High School are involved in Jobs for Maine’s Graduates (JMG), an organization with a mission to identify students who face barriers to education and to guide each one on to a successful path toward continued education, a meaningful career and a productive adulthood. At least 20 of these students participate in weekly Career Association meetings, and during the evening of Nov. 5 this group of JMG members were formally initiated and inducted in a ceremony held in the cafeteria.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

    JMG STUDENT PRESENTERS — Penquis Valley High School Jobs for Maine’s Graduates (JMG) students gave a presentation to the SAD 41 school board on their participation with fellow program members at a Leadership Education Conference, which included an explanation of the “True Colors” personality assessment. Among those presenting during the Nov. 5 meeting were, from left, Penquis Valley JMG Job Specialist Shannon Bishop, Sha-Lynn Trafton, Mashilla Harrison, Noah Allen, Brianna Champeon (partially hidden), Destiny Ray, Dylan Pearson and Keith Emery.

    “JMG is an important, interesting program for our kids, it gets them thinking about jobs and the community,” Penquis Valley Principal Jeremy Bousquet said. “I have asked them to take on some pretty important jobs for our school.”
    Bousquet said the JMG students networked with businesses in SAD 41 member communities to help distribute the school newsletters, and have also been integral in planning the annual Veterans Day ceremony. He said they also assisted with a vendors fair and help run a paper recycling program on campus.
    “I’m proud of each and every one of you,” Bousquet said.
    The evening’s guest speaker was Erin Callaway, healthy community project coordinator for the Piscataquis Regional YMCA as part of the larger Feel Good Piscataquis! initiative. “We are really looking at all of the social factors and different elements that go into living a healthy life,” Callaway said, saying the region has an opportunity to solve existing problems but the solutions must be community-driven.
    “I think it’s really important to have our young people involved, asking what is important to them,” Callaway said about these members of the community’s input for Feel Good Piscataquis!
    She said what the JMG Career Association students do now will be important for their future pursuits. “I just feel a personal responsibility to support that,” Callaway said.
    Admitting she was unfamiliar with JMG until several months ago, Callaway said, “These are the kids I want to bring an opportunity to and I want to be involved with. There is a real opportunity for mutual benefit.”
    “Everyone has potential is really something I hold true,” she said. “Potential is different to everyone. There’s lots of different choices and ways to be successful and a lot of different definitions of success.”
    JMG Career Association junior Destiny Ray explained some of the various goals for the students are a focus on careers, social awareness, leadership “and another thing we do is community service.”
    JMG North Region Manager Keith Piehler was present to induct the officers for the 2014-15 academic year. Taking the oath were junior Sha-Lynn Trafton, a third-year JMG student, as president; sophomore Keith Emery, who is in his second year, as vice president; Ray, who is in her second year, as secretary; and senior Randall Hathorn is the treasurer.
    “Ten of our students will be presenting at that meeting,” Penquis Valley JMG Job Specialist Shannon Bishop said about a session of the SAD 41 school board also on Nov. 5. “They actually will be teaching about a personality assessment.”
    During the school board meeting, Bishop said the 10 students had recently joined over 40 other JMG participants in eastern Maine at a Leadership Education Conference. “They learned about an assessment called the ‘True Colors’ personality assessment,” she said.
    Bishop said the JMG students worked in groups to determine individual strengths and weaknesses based on True Colors. While together they also took part in teamwork initiatives and a game to gauge college selection criteria.
    The students passed out True Colors sheets to the school board members, which had four color possibilities. Each shade had different characteristics for the directors to choose from to determine what traits and color fit them the best.