Librarians and Girls

Library Media Specialist

As a library media specialist, you play an essential role in students’ lives, including to help them develop skills for success in school, college, and careers. From supporting students in growing as lifelong readers to teaching effective research skills and partnering with teachers to integrate current technology, media specialists cover lots of ground. As an information specialist, you’re also uniquely positioned to support students in exploring careers.

Career Girls helps by providing you with high-quality, commercial-free resources for career exploration. From exploring wide-ranging careers to learning the importance of integrity and teamwork, your students can use this video-based tool to expand their horizons and learn what it takes to turn a skill, interest, or dream into a professional career.

The Empowerment Lessons are a great place to get started. This series of lesson plans, suitable for use with individual students as well as with small and large groups, focuses on helping girls build success while they’re still in middle- or high school.

Teaching With the Empowerment Lessons

Clear and easy-to-use, the Empowerment Lessons are a high-quality, no-cost career guidance and development tool designed by experienced educators. Career-Based Empowerment Lessons are centered around career exploration, and Skill-Based Empowerment Lessons  focus on social and emotional learning (SEL) with key topics such as teamwork, confidence, communication, leadership, financial literacy, and the importance of integrity.

Each lesson centers around a short video clip that features real-world role models who share straight-to-the-point career insights and advice. These videos are paired with ready-to-use educational resources that build on essential concepts.

The Empowerment Lessons are suitable for use with individual students as well as small and large groups. You can integrate these lessons into your school library media programs with just a few simple steps:

  1. Choose an Empowerment Lesson. Career-Based Empowerment Lessons are located on the Find Your Path page and Skill-Based Empowerment Lessons are located on the Develop Life Skills page. Each Career Girls Empowerment video is about two minutes and focuses on a different topic. You can use the Empowerment Lessons in any order that best meets the needs and interests of your students. For example, solid communication skills are widely recognized as essential for college and career success. To help students improve this skill set, share Developing Communication Skills.
  2. Download the Corresponding Resources. Each Empowerment Lesson has a corresponding set of resources accessible on each video page (see example) and can also be accessed individually through the Resources module at the bottom of this page. Print the PDFs you'd like to make available to students.
  3. View the Video with Students. It may be helpful to preview the video first, noting information that is particularly relevant or vocabulary you might want to review. For example, overcoming obstacles is a part of life. Role models in Overcoming Obstacles introduce students to strategies they can use to develop a "can do" attitude and get to the end goal.

Use the corresponding resources alongside the videos to deepen understanding:

  • Independent Learning Guide: (see example) This guide is designed to engage girls in digging deeper into concepts introduced in the videos. Students can complete this guide on their own, but you'll find that it's also a great tool for sparking meaningful conversations with lasting impact.
  • Classroom Lesson Plan: (see example) While designed for teachers, you may find this resource helpful for taking an in-depth look at topics of particular interest to students.
  • Fun Page Activity: (see example) Students can complete this fun activity to connect what they learned in the video to their own lives.

Use the "Positively Empowered!" Certificate. Goal-setting is important in school and beyond. The Positively Empowered! Certificate provides an easy and concrete way to help the students you work with set personal goals for developing the skills and knowledge they need to go after their dreams — and track the steps they're taking to get there.

Using the Career Exploration Tools

Along with ready-to-use Empowerment Lessons, Career Girls offers built-in career exploration tools to engage girls in expanding career awareness, imagining what's possible, and taking important steps to plan for their futures.

The free Career Quiz is a fun place to start. This quick and easy quiz helps girls discover careers that may be a match for their skills and interests, with links to role models who can help them learn more. Girls who are natural problem-solvers, for example, can meet Makeda Keegan, an IT Systems Manager. Makeda encourages girls not to be afraid of software and coding. More important than being good at math, she explains, is being "curious, enthusiastic, and thorough."

You can also guide your students in exploring by Career Clusters, such as STEM, Health Sciences, and Finance. Or, let them jump right into an A to Z tour of Careers and the Role Models who work in them — from an Accountant to a Zoologist.

College Majors are great place to explore which courses might be required for degrees like Forensic Science, Film and Media, or Electrical Engineering. Each major is linked to related careers and each career is also linked back to related college majors.

Make sure your students are aware of our Student Resources. The printable resources promote independence, providing tools girls can use to track careers they explore and connect those careers to their own interests and goals. They will also find free inspirational bookmarks and posters with motivational messages (see example) to help girls develop the determination and perseverance they need to go after their dreams.

Use Our Library Media Specialist Resources

Use the Resources module below to find these additional library media specialist resources:

Resources

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  • Career Exploration Record

    Career Exploration Record

    Setting college and career goals can motivate students to improve their academic performance. Make copies of this record sheet and have students keep track of career videos they view as well as an overview of each career. This visual record will remind students of the active role they…

    (12.08 KB, pdf)
  • Career Girls Journal - Careers

    Career Girls Journal – Careers

    Use this activity page and the questions that follow to examine careers more closely and build connections. What are the important things to know about this career? What questions do I have about this career? What steps can I take to prepare for a career in ____________? Is this the…
    (24.74 KB, pdf)
  • College Majors Journal

    Career Girls Journal – College Majors

    Use this activity page and the questions that follow to examine college majors more closely and build connections. What are the important things to know about this college major? What questions do I have about this college major? What steps can I take to prepare for this college major? Is…
    (25.13 KB, pdf)
  • Career Girls Journal Colleges

    Career Girls Journal – Colleges

    Use this activity page and the questions that follow to examine colleges more closely and build connections. What are the important things to know about this college? What questions do I have about this college? What steps can I take to prepare for this college? Is this the college for…
    (25.13 KB, pdf)
  • Career Tracker

    Career Tracker

    This chart helps keep track of careers explored. (Print multiple copies of this page.)

    Keywords: printable, printables
    (19.28 KB, pdf)
  • Career tracker for Empowerment Workshops

    Career Tracker – For Empowerment Workshops

    Use this record sheet to keep track of each career explored. This version of the Career Tracker is useful for Empowerment Workshops and other programs where students are asked to explore a minimum number of careers in order to earn a completion certificate.

    Keywords: printable, printables, certificates
    (16.51 KB, pdf)

  • Choose Your Road

    Yvonne Spicer, Museum Educator VP: Choose your road and walk it with pride. Download and print this free motivational 8" x 8" 300 dpi mini-poster. Keywords: inspiration
    (2.23 MB, pdf)

  • Choosing Friends – Classroom Lesson Plan

    This guide facilitates whole-class and small-group learning with the Choosing Friends Empowerment Video in the Develop Life Skills section of the website. Keywords: classroom lesson plans, CLP, videos, soft skills, skill-based, skill based, friend, friendship, choose
    (300.76 KB, pdf)

  • Choosing Friends – Fun Page Activity

    Use this activity page with students in conjunction with the Choosing Friends Empowerment Video in the Develop Life Skills section of the website. Keywords: fun page activities, FPA, videos, soft skills, skill-based, skill based, friendship
    (22.42 KB, pdf)

  • Choosing Friends – Independent Learning Guide

    This guide is designed to support quick start discussion-based group learning and students who are independently exploring the Choosing Friends Empowerment Video in the Develop Life Skills section of the website. Keywords: independent learning guides, ILG, videos, soft skills, skill-based, skill based, friend, friendship, friendships
    (331.56 KB, pdf)
  • Choosing the Right Friends

    Choosing the Right Friends – Classroom Lesson Plan

    This guide facilitates whole-class and small-group learning with the Choosing the Right Friends Empowerment Video in the Develop Life Skills section of the website. Keywords: classroom lesson plans, CLP, videos, soft skills, skill-based, skill based, choosing, friends, friendship
    (258.24 KB, pdf)
  • Choosing Friends 2 Fun Page

    Choosing the Right Friends – Fun Page Activity

    Use this activity page with students in conjunction with the Choosing the Right Friends Empowerment Video in the Develop Life Skills section of the website. Keywords: fun page activities, FPA, videos, soft skills, skill-based, skill based, leadership
    (27.12 KB, pdf)
  • Choosing the Right Friends

    Choosing the Right Friends – Independent Learning Guide

    This guide is designed to support quick start discussion-based group learning and students who are independently exploring the Choosing the Right Friends Empowerment Video in the Develop Life Skills section of the website. Keywords: independent learning guides, ILG, videos, soft skills, skill-based, skill based, choosing, friends, friendship
    (221.69 KB, pdf)

  • College Terms to Know

    Download this for a printer-friendly version of college terms for your students to become familiar with. Keywords: college prep
    (135.61 KB, pdf)

  • Confidence Collage – Empowerment Activity

    Topic/Theme:​ Confidence – Use this Empowerment Activity to reinforce the corresponding video and build teamwork and community within your Career Girls Club or other group.

    Keywords: activities,

    (333.29 KB, pdf)
  • Cool Career Facts

    Cool Career Facts

    Career Girls videos are full of surprising and fun facts about widely diverse careers. Imagine this: Jaime Catchen, Mars Rover Systems Engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), helps plan the Rover’s driving—which rocks are safe to drive over and how to best position the Rover to carry out its…
    (16.33 KB, pdf)

  • Cup Tower Challenge – Empowerment Activity

    Topic/Theme:​ Teamwork – Use this Empowerment Activity to reinforce the corresponding video and build teamwork and community within your Career Girls Club or other group. Keywords: activities, team
    (66.07 KB, pdf)

  • Dare to Dream

    Agang Ditlhogo, Social Entrepreneur: Dare to dream and dare to be bigger than anything you can imagine. Download and print this free motivational 8" x 8" 300 dpi mini-poster. Keywords: inspiration, inspirational
    (2.09 MB, pdf)

  • Developing Communication Skills – Classroom Lesson Plan

    This guide facilitates whole-class and small-group learning with the Developing Communication Skills Empowerment Video in the Develop Life Skills section of the website. Keywords: classroom lesson plans, CLP, videos, soft skills, skill-based, skill based, communications, communicating, communicate, develop communications
    (250.61 KB, pdf)

  • Developing Communication Skills – Fun Page Activity

    Use this activity page with students in conjunction with the Developing Communication Skills Empowerment Video in the Develop Life Skills section of the website. Keywords: fun page activities, FPA, videos, soft skills, skill-based, skill based, communicating, communications
    (42.20 KB, pdf)