Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
Introducing "Rotary Community Heroes of Hope" - a podcast dedicated to showcasing the profound impact of Rotary in District 5330 and beyond. Join us as we explore the remarkable stories of rotary heroes and initiatives that are transforming communities and creating hope around the world.
Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
Mock Interviews: Preparing Students for Real-World Success
What happens when high school students face their first real job interview without ever having practiced? For thousands of young people, walking into that first interview means stumbling through an experience they've never been prepared for. That's the problem Mark is solving through his remarkably successful mock interview program.
During this eye-opening conversation, Mark shares how a Rotary concept he encountered 35 years ago evolved into a comprehensive program that's changed countless young lives. "Every high school student should really have an opportunity to learn how to interview for a job," he explains, detailing the carefully structured two-hour workshops where students rotate through four different interviewers. Each eight-minute interview is followed by written and oral evaluations that provide immediate, actionable feedback.
What makes this program truly stand out is its real-world impact. Employers have called Mark specifically to learn his secrets after interviewing his students: "That student was the only one who came in dressed professionally, with a confident handshake and strong eye contact." Even more impressive, some students have received job offers directly from impressed workshop participants.
The genius of Mark's approach lies in how thoroughly it's integrated into the curriculum. These aren't casual role-playing exercises—they're graded activities with the weight of final exams. Students learn everything from proper introduction techniques (first name, pause, last name) to maintaining "calm hands, calm feet" during the interview. They receive feedback on their resumes, portfolios, and even the thank-you notes they're required to write afterward.
For Rotarians and educators looking to implement similar programs, Mark offers a complete roadmap, including timelines, recruitment emails, evaluation forms, and practical guidance. His advice? "Start small. Start with one group, see how it works, then expand." The program's remarkable adoption rate speaks to its value—teachers eagerly share it with colleagues because they immediately recognize its life-changing potential.
Ready to help prepare the next generation for career success? Subscribe to Community Heroes of Hope for more inspiring stories of Rotarians making a difference, and consider bringing mock interviews to a school in your community.
Hello and welcome to the Community. Heroes of Hope, a podcast where we shine a light on the remarkable individuals and projects in Rotary District 5330 that bring hope and change to our local and global communities. I am Judy Zelfikar, your co-host and the current District Governor of Rotary District 5330.
Speaker 2:And I'm Niren McLean, the Rotary District Governor-Elect, and I'm Niren McLean, the Rotary District Governor-Elect. Together, we're diving deep into the heart of the community service, showcasing the impact of dedication and collaboration in addressing some of the most pressing challenges our communities face.
Speaker 1:Each episode, we'll tell stories of incredible people making a difference, innovating solutions and inspiring others to take action.
Speaker 2:We'll also be giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the projects that are transforming their lives, and we'll discuss how you, too, can get involved, contribute and be part of the positive change. Whether you're a seasoned Rotarian or just looking to give back, this podcast is for you.
Speaker 1:So join us as we explore the journeys, challenges and successes of people like you who have stepped up to make a difference. Let's celebrate the spirit of community and the power of hope together.
Speaker 2:Don't forget to subscribe to the Community Heroes of Hope on your favorite podcast platform. Stay with us on this journey of inspiration and let's spread the message of hope further than ever.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in. Let's get started.
Speaker 2:Well, good morning, Mark, and we're very, very happy to have you here with us on the podcast for District 50 through 30, and we're here with our governor, Judy Zulfikar, and I will be here. I will be following her and this is exciting, and for me it's very exciting because Mark interviews were something that were done way back in my day back in school and they seem to have fallen off. So I'm really, really excited to see that you guys are really stepping out to help the young people with the interview process, so that's exciting.
Speaker 1:So, Mark, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the mock interview program that you have there at the La Quinta High School?
Speaker 3:Okay, well, that's great. Well, we've been doing the mock interviews at La Quinta High School now for several years, interrupted for a couple of years by COVID, which seemed to interrupt a lot of things, but primarily we're working with the academies at La Quinta High School. My background is in career counseling. I was an instructor, I was a teacher, I was a counselor and ran a career center for many years in Salinas, california, where we started this program. But it was based on a Rotary concept that I saw at a conference way back when, probably 35 years ago, and the idea was that every high school student should really have an opportunity to learn how to interview for a job and should have a portfolio or a resume of some sort to present to a community member like a Rotarian.
Speaker 1:Yeah it really gets them prepped for getting out into the real world right.
Speaker 3:That's right and unfortunately the schools weren't doing it. And in fact, one of the questions I like to ask my interviewers was how many of you have ever had mock interview practice and an evaluation of how you did in that interview when you were in high school? And I get maybe zero hands in a group of, say, 30 people and maybe I might get one or two depending on the workshop, but very few people have had that experience. So that's one of the reasons that we started it. We started it with one class in a government class in high school. That teacher really liked the experience. Then it grew to every teacher in the school, then it grew to the other high schools, then it went around the state, and so we've been doing this now probably for thousands of kids, literally over many, many years.
Speaker 3:We wound up with every senior, went through the experience, and so what we're doing now at La Quinta High School because I really wanted to carry this on after my retirement. I really wanted to see this grow, because I knew the value of it. I knew how our interviewers felt about meeting with our young people and forming a relationship, a one-on-one with them and being able to help them with one of the most important skills they could ever learn, which was how to interview for a job. So that's how it all started, and I can tell you a little bit about the process, if you'd like to know it all started and I can tell you a little bit about the process if you'd like to know Absolutely.
Speaker 1:That's what my next question was going to be. So you have to train the interviewers as well as then, obviously, going through the process. So tell us how that works.
Speaker 3:Okay, so typically we schedule these workshops for a two-hour time frame. We need two hours because we want to do four interview rounds. An interview round consists of an eight-minute interview using commonly asked interview questions or other questions that interviewers would like to ask, followed by a five-minute written and oral evaluation on a form that I've developed, which I'm willing to share with anyone who'd like to have it, as well as any of the other documents I use, and then the students reflect back after the five-minute evaluation. The students actually reflect back what they learned from their evaluation and have to do that so that they internalize what they've learned. And then we go ahead and we interview another student, so we do four students, and in most of our workshops we try to recruit enough interviewers so that we have one interviewer for every two students and that way every student gets at least two interviews and two evaluations in the session. The reason we do it that way is so that the students can apply what they learned from the first session to the second one in the same workshop. Okay, then they take those evaluations with them back to class, they debrief those in class over the next couple of classes and then including sending a thank you card oftentimes, or a thank you letter to our interviewers, that students develop those letters. So we go through the whole process.
Speaker 3:Regarding the interviewers themselves, I recruit those interviewers from Rotary members when I can, and if I don't have enough then of course I have to turn to community members, which most of our community is very anxious to participate in these workshops.
Speaker 3:They really get a kick out of them. They really like being able to coach kids and help them with something that they know themselves is such an important skill. The interviewers don't have to be experts or HR people or even subject matter experts, any of that. All they have to do is be willing to spend a little time with some kids, and so I train the interviewers right before our workshop, where we give them the materials, I talk to them, answer their questions and talk to them about the timing, because the interview workshops are very structured. So I keep time with all of the different stages the interview eight minutes, the evaluation five minutes, the talk back to the interviewer in terms of reflecting back another two minutes, and so forth, so that everyone stays together. And then the tricky part is I wanted the students to have a different experience with each of the four different interviews during the two-hour session. So what I do then is I move the interviewers from one table to the next, and so every interview is with a different interviewer.
Speaker 1:They get a different feel for the different types of the ways people interview. Even if it's the same questions, they kind of approach it differently, right? Different tone, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and because we have the, we use the 18 commonly asked questions as kind of a base, then you're you're only able to ask about six or seven. So there's plenty of questions to give a different experience each time which the kids really, really benefit from. And the other thing is that we've learned over time that we need to keep the other student at the table or sometimes there's two other students at the table busy during the interview. So we talk about well, you're not going to fall asleep at this interview, you're going to reflect back and you're going to help with the evaluation of the student who's been interviewed. And I work with the interviewer to ask the other students at the table what did they think about? An area like what about eye contact? What about the introduction? What about the handshake? Did you notice? What did you think about the answer to that particular question, and so forth.
Speaker 3:So the other stage, before the workshop starts, of course, and after I've worked on recruiting who I'm going to recruit, and so forth, but about a week or sometimes two weeks ahead of the interview workshop, I go into the class and I bring the materials with me and the teachers have had these materials also in advance, but I go over especially the evaluation form with the students point by point, getting a lot of input from the students as I go so that I demonstrate things and I give them a role model and I give them examples of how they might, how they sit and how they shake hands and how they say their name first name, pause, last name, because so many kids say their name really quickly.
Speaker 3:We talk about volume of speech being important, we talk about a body language and maintaining calm hands, calm feet, leaning forward, eye contact, all of those things and we get all the way down to the. We examine the resume and the portfolio the kids have prepared and that's part of their evaluation process too. And if I coach the interviewers I say to them if you see words misspelled or anything wrong on that resume, please point it out and let the student know you won't interview anyone with errors on their resume, that type of thing, because those are the kinds of things we want our kids to walk away from knowing that just doing well enough, like some of them may do on a math test or whatever, isn't good enough.
Speaker 1:So, mark, you've been doing this for many years. Have you had students come back after they've gone through this process and gone into you know the work, into you know finding a job and giving you any feedback on what this impact of this program was on them?
Speaker 3:I have had some Students generally don't come back after their senior year, but I have had a few over the years. But more than that, I've had employers call me. I've had employers call me and said how did you do with that student? That student was the only one to come in who was dressed in a business-like way. The student approached me very confidently, with a great handshake and eye contact wasn't shy like we see so many kids who just don't really know what they're doing. I just want to know what did you do? And so I explained what I did. And then now employers were putting job offers into our career center and we had a number of kids who were hired in these interview workshops because the employers were so impressed and if they happened to need someone at the time, they actually hired kids out of our workshops.
Speaker 3:That's awesome which was a terrific advantage for the students and for the employers. It's a win-win all the way around.
Speaker 1:Are you finding that same type of interactivity in La Quinta in this program that you've been working there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have.
Speaker 3:At first it was a little difficult to break in because I was hoping to work with seniors, the same as I did in Salinas.
Speaker 3:But I had an in there, since I was on campus and people knew me I'm a Rotarian and that helped open some doors.
Speaker 3:But what really worked for me was when I targeted the academy classes, the California Partnership Academies, which we had in Salinas as well, but they're career-oriented academies, like the Medical Health Academy, like the Technology Academy, culinary Arts and Public Services Academy there are four, I believe, at La Quinta High School and so we were concentrating on those and those teachers were really happy to have our services, because this is exactly the type of program that works with what they're doing.
Speaker 3:They have mentorships, they have internships, they have content oriented towards their career area, they take lots of job shadowing, types of field trips and placements for students and so forth. So this worked very, very well with them. They part of the California Partnership Academy is to develop more career oriented activities and also connections with the community, and so I was providing that service through Rotary for them and they were very pleased to have it, and so they're anxious every year to get started. In fact, this year we've added another academy, the last academy at the high school that we haven't been working with, and we're going to be working with that academy as well.
Speaker 2:Mark, that's pretty excellent. I have a couple of follow-up questions. One is going back to the actual interview. The workshop, I imagine, is done in a classroom-like setting the actual interviews when you're working with the students. Is that done in a more intimate two-on-one type of thing, or is it done at a big table and we're sitting here and then the next student and interviewees are sitting a few feet away and then etc. How is that operating?
Speaker 3:Good question, and so the orientation and the setup of the room is very important also, and so what we have is we do the interviews well, we do them in a couple of different locations, and I'll tell you about both. One is we use one of the small gyms at La Quinta High School and I set up a map for the custodial staff and the administration to set up that gym with six-foot tables. They're rectangular tables, six foot tables. They're rectangular tables and they're set up a little space apart from each other, quite a little ways apart, so that there's not interference from noise or conversations from another table people can hear, and I set up two or three chairs on one side of the table and one chair on the opposite side for the interviewer, so they're facing each other, and so we'll have maybe 20 or 22 tables set up that way in lines, and that way I can easily move the interviewers from one table to the next after each round. So it's a large room but it allows us the space to move people around and have enough quiet between tables or have enough separation between tables so that the noise isn't distracting from one table to the next, and that seems to work pretty well.
Speaker 3:The other place that we do it in the culinary academy. They have such an amazing shop there at La Quinta High School. It's a full industrial kind of kitchen and operation and plus a classroom connected to it. It is amazing. It's more like a college level program or a professional culinary school program. It's very much like that.
Speaker 3:So I thought it would be important to bring our interviewers into the shop and give them a tour of the shop so they could see what the culinary program and the equipment and so forth. And I asked the teacher to provide student greeters. Students come in, they meet people in the parking lot, they bring them to the office to check in and then the students escort them out to the shop. And we even have golf carts for some that can't walk that far out to the shop, and we even have golf carts for some that can't walk that far out to the shop. And then the students take them through the shop to show them and explain the equipment and a little bit about what they do in the culinary program. And then we have the workshop in the classroom setting, again with the same set of tables like I described for the gym.
Speaker 1:So it really is focusing on all of the soft skills that you don't normally get in your classroom setting and allowing those students to practice those soft skills within the construct of their classes, and learn those skills.
Speaker 3:The real goal of the workshop is teaching them those skills and having them practice those skills a lot, because they do it in class, they do it when I'm there. They also do it when I'm not there for a week or two before the interview workshops actually start, because we want the kids to be tuned up. One of the other things that is very important is this is not seen by the students as just an ordinary extra, extra activity, and this is so important. It is part of the curriculum. It is a graded activity. It receives a heavy grade equivalent to a final exam, equivalent to a final exam.
Speaker 3:The original Rotarian that I learned this from when I went to that vocational workshop back 35 years ago. He was superintendent of his high school and also president of his Rotary Club and he made the program such that seniors would have to have a passing grade given by a Rotarian and it would have to pass. Their portfolio resume would have to pass and also their performance in the interview workshop. He required it.
Speaker 3:Now I'm not a superintendent, I'm an outsider from Rotary going into the school. So that's why I work with a teacher to make an important part of their grade, because some kids will recognize the importance of this, but when they're a teenager, sometimes it's just another thing. But when you say, hey, this is part of your grade and we're having people from the outside, you want representing your school I'm saying this in front of the instructor too You're representing your school, your program, this academy and yourself. So you need to be as well prepared as you possibly can be, and I'll tell you what all of those things kind of tune the students up to be a little bit more serious than they might otherwise be, and they come in dressed, and so forth.
Speaker 1:We have members of school boards and probably superintendents that are possibly listening to this podcast, and we definitely have Rotarians and other clubs around our district listening to this podcast. How could they implement this in their district or their schools in the region that they reside?
Speaker 3:I'd be happy to work with any of them in terms of the materials and the setup and be more of a guide for them and so forth. I won't do the workshops for them or anything like that I'm kind of busy myself but I'd be happy to help them if they want to set something like this up, with what you need to do to set it up. I have a timeline, for example. I have a written timeline with all of the required activities to make this work, and then I have the recruitment emails that I've developed. I have all of the forms and all of the activities and what teachers are expected to do and so forth.
Speaker 3:And so, yes, I'd be happy to help anyone who wants to start something like this, and I think the advice that I would give them is start small. Start with one group, just do one group that's how I started and see how it goes. One group just do one group that's how I started and see how it goes. And if that works, then move on to more of the kids, rather than try to take something on that's too large at one time. No need to do that. Just start small and then work up from there.
Speaker 2:So, Mark, let me ask you a couple of questions. One is does the La Quinta High School have a sponsor, an advocate on campus outside of you?
Speaker 3:For the workshops.
Speaker 2:For the workshops or the program in general? Is there somebody driving it besides you and you're just kind of the consultant that is coming in and saying turn left, turn right and making sure everybody's doing what they should be doing? And saying turn left, turn right and making sure everybody's doing what they should be doing?
Speaker 3:Once I introduced this workshop to teachers okay, who are responsible for their classes, they become my advocates. The reason it spread in the first place was one teacher had it. That's why I say start small. He talked to the other people in the department and within one year the very next year everybody wanted a workshop. And the same way I started with one academy at La Quinta High School. One class well, basically two classes, because they have two per academy with one teacher, and the other teacher also helped. And so the idea was that that went reasonably well. And then another academy teacher said, hey, I'd like to. Was that that went reasonably well? And then another academy teacher said, hey, I'd like to do that for my academy too.
Speaker 2:So the teachers are the advocates on the campus, see, that adoption rate I think is quite remarkable because I know talking with Rotarians looking for pride in Ryla, trying to find sponsors or keep sponsors for some of the programs that they have ongoing, has posed a challenge. So the fact that you're able to light a fire in one part of the campus and it goes sweeping across the entire campus is truly, in my mind, quite a remarkable thing and talks about the, I guess, you as a leader, as well as the program itself. So kudos to you.
Speaker 1:Sounds like District Governor-elect. You might have a new program that you can send out to your president-elect and maybe something that could be talked about at District Training Assembly.
Speaker 2:Well, unfortunately for us, the District Training Assembly schedule is set up, but I tell you what I would like to do. I'm going to have a third Thursday Mark, where I'm going to be bringing my president-elect to talk about certain things, and I would certainly like your program to be one of those first things we come out of the gate because, you know, education is everything and I'm thinking in particular about the young kid who you know he's not coming. He or she are not coming from the right side of the trucks, right, they may be the first in their family to graduate high school and don't truly understand the importance of speech patterns and looking somebody in the eyes and a straight handshake and the quality of your resume and all that sort of thing. So what you're doing really is life-changing and that's part of really what we do in Rotary and change in the arc of your resume and all that sort of thing. So what you're doing really is life-changing and it's part of really what we do in Rotary and change in the arc of a young kid's life.
Speaker 2:So I think that's so phenomenal and I would definitely like you to make part of our presentation. We'll also have some separate Saturdays that we'll be doing to focus on some key elements. So one of those two either the third Thursday or a special Saturday to talk about your program for them to be able to sink their teeth into and find out more. So awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd be happy to help out with that. My goal is to see this thing spread. I think the reason that people maybe don't stay around on campus or whatever our energy is as enthused over a period of time is there's got to be a lot of value. Now people are very busy too. There's lots of pulls on people, for sure. But I think that the reason these workshops have happened and the reason that they've spread is because the teachers talk to each other. They share these kinds of things that they see value in. If they see value that it's working for them and it's a win-win, then it's going to spread.
Speaker 1:And that's the key right. Rotary brings value to our community. Now this type of program brings value to our schools, our teachers, our students, in another way. So thank you, Mark, so much for joining us today. I'm sure that Niren and his team will be chatting with you and I hope that you share this podcast out as it gets published so that other clubs can join you in this particular activity of doing mock interviews in their schools.
Speaker 3:That's terrific. Thanks very much. Glad to share.
Speaker 1:Take care Bye-bye. So that wraps up this episode of Heroes of Hope. We are so happy that we have an audience out there listening. We want you to subscribe, share and tell your friends about the Rotary Community Heroes of Hope, because that's how we get the word out about the impact we're having in this world.