Kirkwood’s KICK Careers program immerses youth in hands-on learning

For nearly two decades, Kirkwood Community College has provided summertime Kirkwood Interactive Camps for Kids — also known as KICK. These one to four-day sessions offer immersive, hands-on career learning experiences for students aged 8 to 15.

This year, KICK Careers includes camps designed for kids aged 12 to 16. The new offerings are tailored to the ages when young people often start to think about what their older selves might want to do for a living.

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“It’s a good age,” said Melanie Bouzek, program developer for Kirkwood’s continuing education programs. “Sometimes you have this perception of, ‘This is what they do in this career,’ and this is a way to say ‘I’m interested.’ They really wanted more exposure to career-focused camps. That’s where the idea starts.”

Classroom sessions are supported by hands-on activities at Kirkwood’s learning labs and visits to businesses.

“Our goal is to bring in industry partners, whether it’s an on-site visit or bringing them into the camp,” Bouzek said. “All the instructors have experience in the industry. (Students) get a good and deep experience of what it would be like to do this for a career. Maybe they realize it’s a trade they really want to get into.”

The Marketing, Pet Grooming & Care and Culinary camps meet at Kirkwood’s main campus. Auto Tech meets at Kirkwood’s Regional Center at the University of Iowa’s Coralville campus, and the Construction course at the Linn County Regional Center in Hiawatha.

Students in the Marketing & Business camp will develop a marketing plan for Iowa Popcorn Company’s new owners. It’s a somewhat condensed version of the regular course, according to instructor Tara Allen.

“When I moved here from Nashville about 18 months ago, I took the tests and books away from the program and had the students integrate into the community and its businesses,” she said. “We’re making it fun, but also using the businesses my college students do. They’re getting a crash course.”

Students in the Pet Grooming camp will get workplace experience observing Kirkwood’s on-campus grooming and canine obedience services.

“We have full-service grooming here,” said Sara Roberts, assistant instructor in Kirkwood’s pet-grooming program. “We can show these students what this work would look like. We’re really trying to get them exposed to handling dogs and working with them. It’s a real popular career choice and interest.”

With the KICK offering likely to attract young people with household pets, Roberts’ plan is to equip them with some useful skills they’ll use at home and with dogs they may meet.

“One of the things we like to teach our students right away is canine body language,” she said. “Animals speak to us without words. Kids already want to reach out to pet when they meet a dog. We’ll teach them to breathe first” and consider how to approach an unfamiliar animal.

Students will also meet Kirkwood’s certified master groomer and watch her work.

“She’ll be teaching them some of the more advanced things,” Roberts said. “She does styling, so she does a lot of different modifications of cuts.”

Students will visit Iowa Popcorn’s Marion store on the first day of Allen’s Marketing & Business program.

“We’re going to just taste the popcorn, and they’ll be doing a client-needs assessment, but they won’t know it,” she said. “To them it’s field trips, but they have the idea they’re an agency doing needs assessment and networking.”

That’s followed by classroom meetings with business leaders as students develop a plan. On the third day, students will present their ideas.

In addition to potential career development, camp participants will gain some practical knowledge. The Marketing camp helps students cope with the social media world they’re often steeped in.

“Kids don’t really understand the science behind social media,” Allen said. “They may use it, but they may not understand the customers on it. They’ll learn about user-generated content and how you get people to share it.”

Students will learn to identify techniques employed by influencers and the effects of artificial intelligence.

“Kids don’t really understand the science behind social media,” Allen said.“We do the research and we find out this customer is tied to this product, and this customer is on this social media platform.”

Developing a marketing strategy calls on a range of skills.

“You’ve got a creative kid, someone artsy, you’ve got an entrepreneurial kid,” Allen said. “You’ve got a kid that’s networking all the time? That’s the kind of person you want in here.”

Similarly, pet grooming students gain some practical knowledge and skills they can employ with their families’ pets at home.

“We want that to happen,” said Roberts. “They’ll go home with some information they can share with their family and hopefully keep that going. We can help protect people and their animals.”

Visit Kirkwood’s KICK Career program at kirkwood.edu/kick for more information or to sign up. Tuition assistance is available.