By Kellah Lavoie

Website a new tool for high school student

Oct 31, 2010 | 11:25 AM

It’s been a project two years in the making.
At the beginning of the school year, the Prince Albert Roman Catholic Separate School Division launched their career planning website.
Loretta Morhart, a teacher librarian at St. Mary High School, headed up the efforts.
Morhart said the project was a “joint venture with Holy Trinity School of Moose Jaw.”
The two schools started applying for the government grant two years ago and now everything is finally up and running.
The website is based on what Morhart said she thought would be best for the school and community.
There are five main categories — school, student, parent, community and calendar. Each one is based towards a certain topic and a certain need.
She said the student category, for example, has career planning, information on post-secondary education, scholarships, student loans, employment and other opportunities for the youth.
The parents section is a whole different beast, she said, so Morhart created the parent handbook.
“I received and additional grant from the ministry of education to put together a parent handbook,” Morhart said.
Morhart said she updates the website daily and the handbook as requirements change in the curriculum.
“I want to make sure that all parents are informed that all students are aware of what it is that we have to offer. Communication, to me, is the key in any kind of relationship and we have a relationship to our students and we have a relationship commitment to our parents as well,” she said.
She has presented the handbook and website to several places in the community and various agencies. She said so far she has only heard positive feedback.
“It’s been very enthusiastically received to tell you the truth. Saskatchewan didn’t have anything like this until the handbook resource was created. And I have also put a lot of work into the site trying to make it what I think parents are wanting and students are wanting.”
Mohart goes back to the Ministry of Education next week to present her project along with all the other people who received grants.
She said the new resources are important, because the definition of a career has changed so much over the years.
“A career is just what you thought you got paid for doing work, and now a career is means so much more. It means not only what you do when you are at work, but what you do when you are home and in your community,” she said.
“So we need to realize then it’s not just the academic part we are trying to help students with, it’s the career, but also with you know their extra-curricular part their social and their stuff within the community.”
The new website can be found at persueonline.com.
klavoie@panow.com