Prep You: The Counselor Bringing the Senior Class Onward
By Amelia Deyoe
As a senior in high school, career fairs aren’t the most exciting thing in the world. But at Jenks, seniors can experience helicopter landings, live paintings and zoo animals at their career fair. The long process of finding speakers, food and transportation is difficult but worth it for the students.
Kimberly Catterson is the career counselor at Jenks High School. She’s worked for Jenks for 11 years alongside her husband who is the Head Athletic Trainer at JHS. Her kids keep her busy with football, soccer, and show choir performances.
Inside and outside of school she is very committed to making the community a better place and stepping in wherever she sees a need. Her October is consumed with cold calls, emails, and meticulous planning for the upcoming event Prep You. The event aims to equip seniors with a deeper knowledge of career paths and new connections to people in their future fields of work.
Catterson was inspired to create Prep You by Mustang High School (MHS), which created a day for seniors to learn about what's next. They held this event at MHS but Catterson had bigger plans. She knew we needed a venue that was large enough to fit the senior class and have enough space for multiple sessions to occur at the same time.
After a long search, they landed on OSU Tulsa. It was the perfect choice for the event. It provided many rooms and held a much more competitive price than the other venues. The event splits up the senior class into many different sessions ranging from cosmetology to helicopter flight. The students choose which sessions they want to attend and learn about the career fields they’re interested in.
The white board in Catterson's office filled with meticulous planning and ideas for Prep You.
“The very first Prep You, the speakers were my friends. Or my doctor. Or my kid's dentist. It didn’t matter,” Catterson said.
Since then, the community has been increasingly involved in Prep You every year. It gets its funding from the foundation but money isn’t the only thing needed for Prep You to work. Jenks transportation is used to get the entire senior class to OSU Tulsa and each speaker dedicates their Friday to talk to the kids.
“It's good for the community and businesses to see how great and well-behaved and intelligent, high school kids are, and to see what's coming to their workforce,” Catterson said.
She wants to make sure each student has something for them. With over 20 sessions, students can learn about cosmetology, civil engineering, helicopter aviation and so much more. Students like Emma Scribner are able to learn more about their future and make connections that could lead to internships, jobs and more.
“I was able to hear from professionals in many fields that I found interesting and see what drew me to pursue deeper knowledge in. It set me up for a better grasp of my interests heading to college,” said Scribner.
Many students like Scribner aren’t sure what they want to do after high school and Prep You is designed to help narrow down the many choices they have. Catterson intentionally made this event so versatile so that every student’s needs were taken care of. Even down to lunch, students are provided with Chick-fil-A and Catterson personally makes sure that students with dietary restrictions are accommodated.
“Every year, I cross my fingers and pray that the speakers we have meet the needs of the current class,” Catterson said.
November 3rd, all of Catterson's hard work will be put to fruition. The senior class of Jenks High School will be bussed to OSU Tulsa and attend the 4th annual Prep You. Pouring in her effort with long checklists and color-coded maps, this is sure to be the best one yet. Though it takes an army to accomplish Prep You, Catterson is a fearless leader ready to face each battle head on.
