Deer Park’s Dress for Success, recently held on two separate days at John Quincy Adams and May Moore primary schools, introduced career exploration to the district’s youngest students while stressing the importance of working hard in order to achieve academic and career goals.

The initiative was prepared by the district in compliance with the state’s Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks. A lesson plan, video and assignment were provided to the students to help connect educational achievement and a strong work ethic with career success. Kindergartners through second graders were encouraged to dress for the career that they want, and during lunch periods, students were able to pose with career props in a mini photoshoot.

Districtwide counselor Angeline Ramos, who organized the Dress for Success initiative, created a puppet video for the students to view that showed the progression of two characters, Hard-Working Harry and Laid-Back Larry, throughout different stages of their life. Throughout each stage, Harry stressed the importance of studying, doing homework and working hard towards his goal of becoming a doctor. Larry did the complete opposite and pushed everything off. The video started off in elementary school and ended with Harry obtaining his career as an adult while Larry remained regretful that he didn’t work as hard.

“My absolute favorite part of Dress for Success was when students told me that they wanted to be like Hard-Working Harry rather than Laid-back Larry,” said Ramos. “I was happy to see that students made the connection of working hard. I also loved seeing the creativity of everyone’s outfits. None of this could have been pulled off without the inspiration and creativity from parents and help from all staff and faculty.”