Rainmakers Internship Preparation Program Aligned Activities:
Compete for a Seat!
Race for a Place!

By any measure, today’s young adults will face two daunting challenges: securing appropriate post-secondary education (graduating from college or an industry credentialing program) and getting and keeping a job. These are the two ‘toughest games’ in which they will eventually compete, and knowing more about the underlying processes and rules behind each competition will help them succeed.

Compete for a Seat!
(simulating the college admissions process)
Race for a Place!
(simulating the employment process)

Our Stormy Wannabees Advantage Initiative (offered to students in grades 9 and 10) offers a fun, exciting, and informative capstone activity that offers sophomores the opportunity to play the role of college admissions officials deciding who gets admitted and who does not. We call it ‘Race for a Place!’

There is no better way to drive home an understanding of how to succeed in college admissions than working through that decision-making process as the decision-maker. Rainmaker Candidates (participating students) also learn how academic under-preparation in high school will cause them to spend more — much more — for college. If they are not academically prepared, they will have to pay for remedial courses in which they will learn material they could have learned in high school for free. They also learn how the decisions they make now may impact their employability and college admissibility.

We prefer to do this exercise early enough in students’ high school lives (the beginning of tenth grade) so they are more aware of the need to be academically and socially ready.

As part of the Rainmakers Internship Preparation Program (RIPP), juniors take part in a simulated employment scenario where they play the roles of human resource managers making decisions about who gets hired and who does not.  This simulation helps them understand how employers think and what counts in making employment decisions. They learn the importance of academic knowledge and the need to develop the not-so-soft skills necessary for success in the work world. They also learn what NOT to do if they want to secure a good job as an adult.