Purdue Calumet College of Business Providing Leadership Training to EC Middle Schoolers

PUC-LogoPurdue University Calumet’s College of Business has received $30,754 of a $54,000+ collaborative grant from Foundations of East Chicago to provide self-leadership training to help East Chicago middle school students realize their potential for successful futures.

Teaming with Junior Achievement Northwest Indiana Operations and the Northwest Indiana chapter of the Society of Human Resource Management, Purdue Calumet is delivering to the young students a self-leadership training module. Training begins Oct. 24 for sixth, seventh and eighth graders at Block Middle School and continues Nov. 7 and Nov. 21. Students at West Side Middle School are to receive the training next spring.

Recognizing Career Potential
As part of the “JA It’s My Future” program, the self-leadership module is designed to help the students recognize their career potential, build confidence to achieve it and begin preparing now to do so, according to Assistant Professor of Leadership Rachel Clapp Smith, who played a key role in Purdue Calumet receiving its grant support.

“Through self-leadership we want to help these middle school students learn to believe in themselves and what they are capable of doing, as well as enable them to recognize key transitional periods,” Smith said. “Successful leaders reflect on critical moments in their lives.”

Purdue Calumet students will facilitate the leadership module.

Building Positive, Personal Brand & More
Throughout “JA It’s My Future”, the middle school students will explore the importance of building a positive personal brand for their future, identifying job opportunities and career clusters, considering factors in choosing a job, using life experiences to map an employment path, planning financially for college, and the role of personal behavior in keeping and losing a job.

Parents of the middle school students also are being invited to participate in a parental information session Nov. 19.