From March 20th to March 24th, the school spirit club presented College and Career Awareness Week! This event, unique among Infinity Institute’s traditional events, highlighted the various paths students can take toward their future as adults. Even though the event solely sought to increase awareness of education and careers, college and career are mere umbrella terms: hundreds of colleges and universities are available locally, as are endless career opportunities. Normally, this is a struggle for many who do not know what they specialize in or what they feel would be a viable line of work. So, College and Career Awareness Week helped to expose all types of career and college opportunities to students in hopes of facilitating their decision-making.

On Monday, March 20th, students and teachers decorated their doors with college-related topics, fun facts, and people you might know who have gone to those colleges. On that same day, the school hosted a College Door Scavenger Hunt! Students were given a paper where they had to look around each door and answer the questions on that paper. Whichever student could return to the main office with each answer completed and correct would receive two extra points for their grade for Wednesday’s event. The results were close, but the 8th Grade won the Scavenger Hunt for Middle School, and the 12th Grade won for High School!

The excitement around these activities doesn’t end there. On Tuesday, students and teachers can dress up in college-related attire. They can wear hats or shirts that represent any college they wish, free of charge. I was unsure how they would attract many students to engage in this activity (as most may not own college merch, including me). And, my suspicions were correct: not many students participated in this event. In the future, I hope to see more dynamism with the event and possibly something to ignite the college spirit!

Wednesday takes a breather from the college/career dynamic with a Battle of the Grades! This tournament was by far the most interactive (and most fun) event happening this week, with just 90 minutes of fun and games—badminton, basketball, and ping-pong (to name a few). I won’t go into great length about this event, as it isn’t relevant to college or career. However, another news article on our website, https://iinews.org/, does. Make sure to check it out!

Thursday brings the college and career energy back on track. On this day, students embarked on a virtual (regrettably) college field trip. Teachers took their students on a virtual college tour of college life: classrooms, dorms, campus, etc. With this tour, students could have seen if college life is ideal for them and hopefully even look forward to it.

You might have noticed that most of the weekly activities are only college-related. Friday, however, was a game-changer. Based on their destined careers, students were to dress up in the attire they would normally wear in their work environment (for example, an individual in the business field would wear formal clothing like a suit). Teachers could have dress for the job they would want to have. Work attire is a vital part of a job, as wearing it can represent your profession and make you comfortable in the workplace. This day facilitated these benefits with your work attire and even allowed students to express themselves.

And with that, the college/career awareness week came to an end. Even if the awareness stopped here, there’s no telling how this week has impacted everyone here at Infinity Institute. I hope that you were able to participate, have fun, and—most importantly—learn a thing or two about your future career or college path.