Mrs. DelConte, the Career Education Specialist at HAHS since October 2022, assists with all questions and explorations that have to do with careers. Her office dwells in the library, at the entrance closest to the cafeterias. She helps students in nearly every grade, 3-12, with career related conversations; even including speakers to help discuss the classes. Mrs. DelConte is also the person who takes care of everything related to BCTC and job shadowing internships.
For those that need assistance figuring out what career to pursue, she recommends they look at the ASVAB career exploration guide, the website O*NET, or the website Pennsylvania CareerLink.
Mrs. DelConte has also assisted with several events at HAHS, including the Financial Reality Fair. She has had several speakers come in to talk about other career opportunities to students, including the KU early education academy and the people that spoke about PFEW at Lexington. The Etiquette Inaugural dinner is another event that she planned, and she will be planning another for fall.
PFEW, or Pennsylvania Free enterprise Week, is a networking opportunity for students. According to Mrs. DelConte, PFEW is “a week to experience leadership, entrepreneurship, and business”. It allows students going into ther sophomore or junior year of high school to spend a week in a college setting and learn every aspect of business, whether that be the financial or design side. PFEW has been around for 45 years, and even Mrs. Keck went to it when she was in high school. This year, 5 students have been accepted to go, two of them being Ava Green and Riley Mohn. PFEW is a “career toolbox experience” according to Mrs. DelConte, and it will help students find the correct career path to pursue, and it even looks great on resumes.
Mrs. DelConte’s favorite part about working as a career specialist is the ‘little wins’ about teaching. These ‘little wins’ can be when a student finds the perfect career site and finds the right path, or when a student gets a job shadowing opportunity. She enjoys teaching grades 3-12 because the younger students in elementary school are so different from high schoolers that it does not make her job boring. The younger students tend to absorb more information, whereas the older students tend to enjoy more specific lessons and they get more ‘little wins’ than the younger students.
Outside of work, Mrs. DelConte devotes her time to volunteering for her children’s school and sports, and she often bakes with her kids.
