Episode 4

In this podcast episode, the host introduces their special guest, Allison Kitsch, who is an instructor in the CAPS program. Allison talks about how she got involved in the program and the challenges she faced with leaving the traditional classroom setting. She also discusses how the CAPS program was introduced to their school and the projects they had planned before they were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Allison emphasizes the benefits of the CAPS program for all students, whether they have a clear career path or not. She shares her own experience of discovering her passion for cosmetology through job shadows. Allison also talks about the personal connections and laughter shared among the small group of associates in the program. She mentions the possibility of expanding the CAPS program in the future and how it may require additional instructors. Allison mentions some changes that are happening in the program, including the addition of a public speaking credit and the increas Hello guys, welcome back to the Jessup podcast. This is your host, Izzy, and today I would like to introduce you to a special guest I have today, my instructor, Allison Kitsch. Hey. What got you involved in this CAPS program? I was actually voluntold by my principal, Mr. Ray, so brought it to me and said, hey, this is a program we're starting and we want you to be the instructor. How'd you react with that? I had no idea what it was at first. I think it's totally different, you know, when you're in the classroom all day, every day, it kind of is like your house, right? I mean, your classroom is where you spend the majority of your time, and so to leave that, that change is sometimes kind of scary. It's like leaving a familiar and then just change is normally always scary. Right, right, it's that unknown and that's scary for everybody, but that's also kind of the CAPS model. The CAPS program itself is being open and being okay with change, and so that was a big challenge for me before this program even got started. A big saying within CAPS is being comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I definitely was uncomfortable at first. How did CAPS get introduced and like when? So Zach Newson with Innovative Wealth here in town heard about the program, learned what it was, brought it to the school board. The school board thought it sounded interesting, kind of mentioned it to Mr. Ray and got him introduced into the program. And that probably would have been maybe fall of 2018, kind of early spring of 2019. And we went to the Innovation Celebration. So after they learned about what the program was, brought me in, together we all went to the Innovation Celebration that Cedar Falls was putting on. And that was in spring of 2019. And that was kind of my first dose of seeing what students can do when they're given those opportunities. And so I was able to learn about the projects that the current associates were doing, see how they got there. Because coming into this program not knowing anything, I'm like, how in the world are we gonna do this? And so that was kind of my first involvement with it was that Innovation Celebration. And then in the fall of 2019, that was when I started going to some trainings. So it was actually Waterloo Columbus and Jessup both decided to start the program at the same time. And so that would have been, yeah, fall of 2019. We started doing some planning, going to trainings, kind of learning from the Cedar Falls team what it looked like. And then spring of 2020, everybody's favorite year, spring of 2020 was my very first group. So we went through onboarding. We're here for about two weeks, three weeks. And then we all went home for COVID. And I do know that you guys already had projects picked out like with the BCHC. Yes, the landscaping, yep. So there were some projects that they had already chosen, some really, really great projects for that first semester. And then unfortunately, a couple of the projects were with Buchanan County Health Center and with health services, everything shut down. So those kind of halted. Very unfortunate, 2020 was a rough year for everybody. It was, it was, but we persevered. Why do you think CAPS is beneficial? I think CAPS is for everybody, right? Everybody has something to learn. I mean, we talk about like being comfortable with the uncomfortable, who is? Like who is comfortable with being uncomfortable? Nobody is, right? I mean, it's hard, it's hard. Even if you get better at it, you're still not an expert. And so I think everybody has a lot to learn. We put so much emphasis on figuring out what you're gonna do after high school. But I feel like a lot of times in a traditional classroom setting, there's not enough time to explore that. And so I think even if you know what you wanna do, there's still opportunities for you within CAPS. And if you have no idea what you wanna do, well, then CAPS is great because you get to do those job shadows and that networking. I did end up pinpointing what I wanted to do because of job shadows within CAPS. And what'd you decide? Cosmetology. Okay, see, did you have any idea? I mean, you might've had an inkling, right? When you came in. Well, most definitely. Like I knew I wanted to be creative, but I wanted to do something new every day. Keep me on my feet. So how'd you decide that? By going on job shadows. Yeah, and so it just kind of provides students an opportunity to spend more time job shadowing. I think job shadowing, I was very beneficial. Good, yeah. So I mean, I think everybody can do that though, right? I mean, even if you know what you wanna do, you can still go on job shadows. You can still do projects. Placements even. Absolutely, yeah. So I think there's definitely stuff that any high schooler can learn. And another saying, and you talked about the saying, always, the sayings in CAPS, there's many. Many different sayings. So many. And one of them is, wait a second. Is this something Ethan always says? Yes. You, when you get out of. Yes, yes, yes, yes. You get out of CAPS what you put into it. Yes. Yes, yes. Yeah, so you get out of CAPS what you put into it, and I think that goes for any associate, right? I mean, it doesn't matter where you're at. As long as you're putting the effort into it, you're gonna get a lot out of it. Most definitely. Like, if you put into the work, you'll see results. Right, 100%. Like you, doing a podcast. What are your favorite things about CAPS? Okay, I have a couple. One, getting out of the building is usually really nice. So coming down to the co-working space, and just having that more professional environment to be in is a nice change, now that I've gotten used to moving, leaving my classroom. I also think just getting to know the students on a more personal level. So in the traditional classroom, we have classes for 43 minutes. I mean, Dunkerson We Talked has classes for 48 minutes or something. And so when you see a student every day for 43 or 48 minutes, yeah, you get to know them, but you don't really get to know a lot about them. And in CAPS, we are together for two hours every day. Every day. So you learn a lot about the people that you're with. And so with having a small group, we only have 11 associates right now. Everybody gets to know everybody. I get to know everybody on a much more personal level. And that's one of my favorite things about teaching. We share a lot of laughter. What's in this group? And some tears, and some fears, and a lot of food. So a lot of things are shared. And so I just think that's kind of cool. I do think it's cool to bring Dunkerton and Jessup together. There's a couple associates that are former associates that met during CAPS and continue to be friends. It's so crazy to me. It's just like, I never knew any of these people. And then jumping into CAPS after countless upperclassmen was like, oh, you should join CAPS. I was like, sure, why not? That sounds like a good idea. Hey, it's a way to get out of school. It was a way to get out of school. So yeah, I mean, it's good. And then, you know, you have that connection with somebody like, hey, we're both a CAPS associates. You know, you meet someone, if you go to Hawkeye or you go, you're gonna, if you go to Capri, right? There's gonna be people at Capri from the Cedar Falls area. Well, they could have been in CAPS. And automatically you have a connection that you wouldn't have had before. There's always some type of connection you can make with people. Right. Why should the CAPS program expand? Expand here or expand like in Iowa in general? Well, I think it goes back to that being beneficial to everyone, right? And so I think expanding just gives more students the opportunity to explore the CAPS model. How many students do you think are going to join CAPS like in the next five years? So typically we limit CAPS because it is very hard to have all of those conversations. Right, we have everybody's doing projects. Everybody's doing job shadows. I mean, think about, okay, you and I spend two hours every day together, but that doesn't mean that you and I get to talk for two hours every day. And so it's really hard to try to find time to meet everybody's needs. And so we try to limit our CAPS associates to 15 every semester. And I'm guessing it will probably stay around that if anything, it might expand to 20 per semester if we have some more students that are interested. But it just gets really tough beyond that. So I feel like there would have to be more than just one instructor if it gets bigger. Yeah, it almost has to be, we have a couple CAPS tours this year. And so it almost has to be, there's an instructor for CAPS one. And an instructor for CAPS two. Yeah, absolutely. How has the CAPS program changed since you started working with CAPS? Oh my gosh. Well, one of the big changes is happening next year. So right now students get credit through Hawkeye that is Exploration of Business Careers. It's a business elective. Next year, we are bringing in an instructor who is going to do public speaking one day a week. And so there's gonna be different requirements there. And the associates will receive their public speaking credit through Hawkeye. So that's kind of a big change coming in. I also think more people know what the program is through our showcases that we've done and events that we've done and our logo and our name is out there. So I feel like more people know what CAPS is, which helps word of mouth. They at least have heard of it. They might not know exactly what it is. True, yeah. But they have at least heard of it, especially with small schools like Jessup and Dunkerton. It's very easy to like know, oh yeah, I've heard of this, but what is it? And that's something we practice, right? We practice pitches. So on a dime, any associate should be able to give their CAPS pitch. We had that happen yesterday at our showcase with a delivery man telling what CAPS was. Yep, and somebody just gave him a quick, what was it, 20 seconds, maybe? Just a little spiel. About what it was. Do you see yourself working in with CAPS like for many more years? I think so. I don't think it's going away anytime soon. I think if anything, more of the traditional classroom settings, they'll probably adopt more of a CAPS model just because there is so much benefit to it. And work-based learning as a whole is growing in popularity with schools. And so I definitely think that it's here to stay if not expand. Yeah. Do you think like for our like small schools, if more students were interested, do you think there'd be broken off into little groups like how Cedar Falls Schools is? I don't know. I don't know if we'd have enough to do, so they do strands. And so Cedar Falls, I think, has six different strands. I'm just not sure that we would have enough students to do that. Like Cedar Falls has 150 a semester or something like that. It's crazy. And so they have enough to meet those strands or there's demand enough for that. I'm just not sure we'd have that. I think instead of the strands, it'd be a CAPS one and a CAPS two group maybe. Or like a morning and an afternoon group. So right now we only meet in the afternoon, but I think if there was enough interest, you could do like a CAPS in the morning and a CAPS in the afternoon. So yeah, I'm not, I don't know. That's where definitely another instructor would probably have to come in because of you're a teacher, like you can't be there all day. And some of the ones in Cedar Falls, they are only CAPS instructors. So they do it morning and afternoon with different groups. Which would probably be like helpful. Yeah. So I mean, it might fit into student schedules a little bit more. Cause like you guys have mostly required classes in the morning. So it really depends on time of day, just depending on normally tends to be like what grade you're in. Like what time your required classes are because like last year, my sixth period was when I had one of my required classes. But this year has been like a lot different. I've been able to, both semesters I've been getting, like I got to be out early and being able to like explore kind of the things that I wanted, like taking college classes and then also doing CAPS. Yeah. I mean, it'd be something where like during second, third and fourth period, you had CAPS and then you went back and had your required classes in the afternoon. So we'll see. We'll see what happens in the schedule. We'll see what happens with interest and the public speaking. You know, that's kind of a new avenue for us. I thought it would be a lot easier just to get that done and out of the way instead of having to wait until college to get that. Oh yeah, it'll be nice. It'll be nice to get that credit. And I think, you know, it can transfer anywhere. So I think it might be a little bit more meaningful. Like I know that you and I has a scholarship for being in the CAPS program. My wonder is, is like, would any of this stuff like transfer over to any other colleges? Cause not everybody's gonna wanna go to UNI or Hawkeye. Mm-hmm. I definitely think so. We have Ethan Weekman and Nate Klaberg and that's, you know, kind of their role is to promote the CAPS program. And they do tons of meetings with legislators and colleges and Hawkeye. I mean, they're meeting with Hawkeye all the time. And so I think that's definitely something that they're pushing. It's just, it's different, right? It's ahead of the curve right now a little bit. And so getting schools on board with a work-based learning program and giving a scholarship to students who are above and beyond because they've had these experiences. Yeah. It's something they're pushing for. So I think it could be eventually. It's just not there yet. It's just a lot easier. I know with like the colleges around, like you and I, one of our, like a big group of CAPS, of the CAPS program is in Cedar Falls and you and I's in Cedar Falls. And we partner with them. Like when we did our leadership meeting, you know, they're partnering with us on those things. So it would make sense why they would have a scholarship for it. Right. Is there anything like your last thoughts of CAPS as a whole? I would say to anybody, right? I mean, anybody can get involved. If you work for a company, you can get your company involved. If you own a company, you can get your company involved. If you have a project and you're a community member, you can get involved. And I think for students, just knowing sometimes there's a misconception that you have to be a straight A student to be in CAPS. Or CAPS is only for the people who have absolutely no idea what they want to do. That is not true. Neither of those are true. You can be anybody and you can be in CAPS because again, like we said, you get out of it what you put into it. It doesn't matter if you are a straight A student or a straight C student, or you know exactly what you want to do or you have no idea, or you just want to go into the world of work. It doesn't matter. It's for you. And so I think just knowing that CAPS is for everyone. Yeah, because just with everybody's different and like our whole group has different personalities, but. And different interests. Yeah, but I'm great about that. I'm glad that I went this semester, especially I like our little group. We all tend to get along. Like even the people from Dunkerdon, I didn't talk too much. Like Bryce Smith and Riley Boyer. Riley, it was in a older grade than me. So it was just, we didn't, our two like friend groups just didn't collide. And Bryce, as you know, used to not speak that much. He doesn't still at school much. The only time I ever see him speak is during CAPS. But it's gotten me to like talk to more people. People see me as a social butterfly, but like if I'm in an area, I don't know. I will keep to myself and go with the people I know. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah. So I mean, it's just a nice group. And I feel like maybe getting out of the classroom setting makes people a little bit more unbiased. So they're open to those new faces. And I think part of, you know, bringing Dunkerton in helps with that too, right? Because you never know what the group dynamic is gonna be. And I will be the first to tell you, it has been different every single semester. As amazing as that is, it has been different. And so I think it truly is for everybody. And your group is gonna make it what it is. Just, yeah. Just take the opportunity. Thanks for listening to the Jessup Podcast. Hopefully I see you next time in the next episode. You guys have a lovely rest of your day, guys.