Navigating Our Way: Respecting and Supporting All Pathways to Success

As Seymour and Sylvie grow up, they learn about and opt for two different pathways through learning and life. Neither path is better – just different!

Follow their distinct journeys and consider how we frame what success looks like for our students and what the future could hold if we supported them fully as they navigate their way.

Many Granite State students have the opportunity to explore different pathways while still in high school through Extended Learning Opportunities. ELOs help students examine their passions through internships, research projects, and hands-on experience – it’s part of the high school curriculum.

George Farrow, a Spaulding High School student in Rochester, recently completed an ELO in sound engineering. He traveled the country and toured with a national production of “A Christmas Carol,” and earned class credit.

During the same semester, Riley Cosgrove interned with Rochester Mayor Caroline McCarley as part of his ELO. There, he worked on a variety of civic efforts, including helping the homeless. His ELO, he said, cemented his desire to serve the people of his hometown through a career in public service.

Last year, students at Hinsdale High School completed ELOs in firefighting, marine engineering, veterinary science, and more.

ELO Coordinators work with students to identify a topic they’d like to pursue, match them with a mentor in the community, and then map out how the experience will relate to the core competencies, or learning benchmarks, that the student has to master.

Farrow says, the ELO “helped me figure out this is what I want to do with my life. There are some things you can’t do in a classroom.”

Navigating Our Way is presented by Big Picture Learning and Fablevision. It was animated by Peter H. Reynolds and narrated by Wendell Pierce.

Learn more about Navigating Our Way here, and check out more resources on NH ELOs here.