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This is the icouldbe.org Curriculum.

All of the boxes below are units. Place your mouse over a box to read a description of the unit. Everybody starts with the green boxes of the Core Curriculum.


	First Impressions


	MyCouldBe


	Community Service

Core Unit 1: Core Unit 1: First Impressions

People judge one another very quickly. These judgments are much harder to control during face-to-face interactions. If we think somebody talks too loud, stands too close to us, dresses funny, smells bad and is hard to look at, we might not listen to anything that person says. The internet removes a great deal of this richness from communication between people; but it offers us much greater control over how we are received. This unit will help you to decide how to present yourself in a purely textual fashion; it will focus on the emails between you and your mentors that will be at the heart of your icouldbe.org experience.
Core Unit 2: Core Unit 2: MyCouldBe

(Unlocked after completion of Core Unit 1)

You can use icouldbe.org in many different ways. This unit will introduce you to the different resources and focus areas that we have to offer. You will be introduced to our career-focused trajectory, our college-focused trajectory, our financial literacy (money management) trajectory and our best uses of high school trajectory. With your mentor, you will decide which of these options is best for you or, if you can present convincing reasons, you may create an individualized trajectory that includes units from different areas of our curriculum. Take your time to read all of the unit descriptions and to make careful choices. After you finish this unit, you will be committed to the icouldbe.org trajectory that you have selected and this trajectory will appear on your profile page.
Core Unit 3: Core Unit 3: Community Service

(Unlocked after completion of Core Units 1 and 2)

Everybody is likely to benefit when you start to take an active interest in the world around you. When you start to think beyond your favorite ways of being fed and entertained, you begin to mature. After all, what sort of people are most famous for caring only about their own needs and wants? Babies.
You might have great fashion sense, know more than your friends about celebrity gossip or have the ability to complain about low quality food, but when it comes to finding employment or getting into college, the adults around you will be much more interested in how you act, what you care about and who you help.
If the goodness of your heart does not motivate you to learn about social issues and to help people, you should understand that dedicating your time and attention to causes that affect other people, is also beneficial to you.

When you complete the core curriculum you will select a focused PATH to follow. Our four suggested paths are presented as columns below:

Career Path: Career Path

icouldbe was originally created to help students learn about all sorts of different careers and how to prepare for them. That is why we have recruited mentors with hundreds and hundreds of different jobs. The career path helps you to discover what jobs might be the best for you and how to increase your chances of receiving the sort of job that you want. It will also walk you through the essential processes of creating a resume, looking for job openings, creating and distributing a cover letter with your resume and preparing for job interviews.
College Path: College Path

Some high school students spend lots of time wondering and worrying about applying to colleges. At the same time, some high schools don't have the resources to help individual students make the right choices and preparations for their college experience. icouldbe has created a college path that addresses many of the decisions that confront a student who is thinking about continuing education. The college path prepares you for the application process, helps you to think specifically about what sort of college would be best for you and discusses the different ways to pay for college and to avoid getting off to the wrong start.
Junior High Path: Junior High Path

If you are in junior high school you might have other things on your mind than applying for college and finding a job. The junior high school path focuses on some of the skills that will help you to formulate and achieve personal goals - whether they relate to grades or leadership or service. Some of the units focus on your ability to use the internet, others examine ways to organize your time more effectively as your workload and stress levels start to increase. After some foundational units, this path will also introduce ways of finding work and becoming involved with local communities that are geared towards younger mentees.
Money Management: Money Management

icouldbe has a number of partnerships with organizations that are big players in the financial world. This means that we have some very talented mentors available to help students gain a clearer understanding of personal finances, from savings and investment to taxes and debt. If you are responsible for the finances of your household or if you want to make your money last longer and go further, this path contains a multitude of units that will help you to make wise decisions about your finances. Be prepared! This path requires some mathematical understanding.

Career Exploration	College Exploration	Uses of High School	Preliminary Budget and Goals

My Draft Resume	Set Goals, Build Experience		Saving money

The above units are blue because they are prerequisites. That means that you have to take the blue units in a path before you take the elective units below.

Career Exploration: Career Exploration

(Unlocked after completion of the Core)

The icouldbe.org community includes more than a thousand mentors who work at hundreds and hundreds of very different jobs. This unit encourages you to explore your interests, to learn about jobs that might be fun for you and to interact with online resources that try to match you with an appropriate career. Nobody is saying that you have to choose your career in high school; but, it helps to learn about as many different options as possible and all of the preparation that some of these careers involve.
College Exploration: College Exploration

Some high school students spend lots of time wondering and worrying about applying to colleges. At the same time, some high schools don't have the resources to help individual students make the right choices and preparations for their college experience. icouldbe has created a college path that addresses many of the decisions that confront a student who is thinking about continuing education. The college path prepares you for the application process, helps you to think specifically about what sort of college would be best for you and discusses the different ways to pay for college and to avoid getting off to the wrong start.
Uses of High School: Uses of High School

(Unlocked after completion of the Core)

Be ready to take control over your high school experience. Right from the beginning of your freshman year, you will be presented with choices that will have a major impact on your efforts, four years later, to find a job or to gain admission to a college or university. This unit will help you to begin thinking about the best way to use your high school experience.
Preliminary Budget and Goals: Preliminary Budget and Goals

(Unlocked after completion of the Core)

Before you begin to address the more complicated money management units, you and your mentors will need to choose some goals and set a framework for your calculations. This unit helps you to prepare a budget that will represent the arrival and departure of your money. Once you have completed this document you will be able to answer some basic questions about the strengths and weaknesses of how you save and spend your cash. Once you know these things, you can decide exactly what you want to accomplish by continuing through the money management trajectory.
My Draft Resume: My Draft Resume

(Unlocked after completion of the Core and Career Prerequisite 1)

Get ready to exist on one sheet of paper! Most of the time, your resume is going to receive the attention of potential employers long before you will. Before you advance further into the career trajectory, this unit will help you to put together a rough draft of your own personal resume. You will examine resume samples and explore different strategies for drawing attention to your qualifications. The resume is only a work-in-progress. Throughout the career trajectory, you will be encouraged to strengthen and revise this document. If you already have a resume, this unit will allow you and your mentors to make it as strong as possible.
Set Goals, Build Experience: Set Goals, Build Experience

(Unlocked after completion of the Core and College Prerequisite 1)

Once you start to narrow down your college search, you will discover what it takes to gain admission to the sort of school that interests you. Knowing the expectations of a college admissions worker can help you to make the most of your high school experience. This can involve a re-thinking of your high school course load, a different approach to gaining work experience and an enlarged focus on community service. It helps to formulate concise goals that will help you to be as strong a candidate as possible when it becomes application season.
Saving money: Saving money

(Unlocked after completion of the Core and Financial Prerequisite 1)

Saving money involves at least two things: figuring out a way to have extra, unspent money and then figuring out how to keep it around until you need it. This unit will address some of the strategies you can use to avoid spending your money all at once or right away. Once you have this extra money, you will soon discover that there are tons of different ways to save it. This unit will help you understand why you might not want to have your money stored in a shoebox in your closet. You will be introduced to the advantages and disadvantages of savings accounts, checking accounts, CDs and more. Once you begin to save your money in a more responsible way, you can start to think about making investments and keeping good credit.

Experience Building	My Portfolio & Applications	Obstacles & Allies	Managing Credit

Job Search & Cover Letter	The College Essay	Time Management & Study Skills	Making Investments

Interview & Letter of Thanks	Financial Aid and Loans	Teamwork and Group Work	Financial Aid and Loans

Community College	Transition to College	Internet Literacy

	Community College	Building Work Experience

	Extra-Curricular Activities

Experience Building: Experience Building

(Path Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and both Career Prerequisites)

This unit begins with a basic assessment of your resume. With help from your mentors you will determine what your resume reveals about your preparedness for work. You will strategize about how to gain experiences that will make your resume more notable and likely to succeed.

This may involve planning for new internships and work experience, or it may involve considering your class selection and community involvement. At the end of this unit, you will have established a number of goals that will bring you closer to realistic candidacy for the sort of job that interests you most.
My Portfolio & Applications: My Portfolio & Applications

(Path Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and both College Prerequisites)

Students typically apply to a variety of colleges. This can involve quite a few different applications, questions, samples of work and essays. It will help you to put together a portfolio of work that is likely to come in handy during the application process. This will enable you to apply speedily, easily and whenever necessary. This unit helps you to begin arranging your portfolio of work.
Obstacles & Allies: Obstacles & Allies

(Path Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and Junior High Prerequisite)

It can be helpful to think of the world around you in terms of obstacles and allies. On one hand, we are often surrounded by people who are willing and able to help us, without noticing them at all. On the other hand, we often allow ourselves to be too easily discouraged by obstacles and frustrations. This unit deals with strategies for benefiting from the helpfulness of people around us and strategies for dealing with the people and situations that make our lives more difficult.
Managing Credit: Managing Credit

(Universal Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and the prerequisites of at least one path.)

Credit card companies often target young people with special mailings and offers. If you do not clearly understand how credit cards work, what their contracts mean and what a credit rating is, this unit is for you. There is no reason to avoid credit cards altogether, but it is extremely important that you choose options that protect your own financial interests and your future.
Job Search & Cover Letter: Job Search & Cover Letter

(Path Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and both Career Prerequisites)

So, you prepared your resume and you have a basic idea of what job you would like to perform. Now, you need to learn how to find relevant job openings and how to get your resume onto the right person's desk. The internet is filling up with different resources that help you to find jobs. This unit will introduce you to some of these resources and explain some of the strategies and frustrations of hunting for work. You will also compose a cover letter that gives a more detailed picture of your capabilities and aspirations; this will accompany your resume.
The College Essay: The College Essay

(Path Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and both College Prerequisites)

The college essay offers an excellent time to distinguish yourself, to show your writing abilities and the originality of your thought. Over the course of this unit, you will examine a number of essay questions and writing samples, with the aim of determining what sort of writing strategies are best to adopt for this very particular task. You will also work on a draft of one of your own college essays.
Time Management & Study Skills: Time Management & Study Skills

(Universal Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and the prerequisites of at least one path.)

Many people find it hard to balance their school work, their extra-curricular activities, their social life and their other commitments. Conflicts of interest and short-sighted decisions can result in students falling behind in school, which is demoralizing, especially when catching back up can be so difficult. Your mentors can be very helpful when it comes to helping you set priorities and study schedules. This type of organization is useful in many different areas of life.
Making Investments: Making Investments

(Path Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and both Financial Prerequisites.)

Once you have figured out how to save money, you may be interested to learn about the different ways to increase your wealth by investing that money. There are many online tools for helping people to make and manage investments. However, there is always the chance that you will lose money by investing poorly, so this unit will prepare you to assess the risks involved in these decisions.
Interview & Letter of Thanks: Interview & Letter of Thanks

(Path Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and both Career Prerequisites)

For many people, the most stressful step in looking for work is the job interview. This unit helps prepare you for this all-important encounter and then walks you through the composition of a thank-you letter to be sent to your interviewer's organization when the interview is complete.
Financial Aid and Loans: Financial Aid and Loans

(Universal Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and the prerequisites of at least one path.)

College and university become more expensive every year. A growing number of young people find themselves deeply in debt at the end of their studies. It is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of different financial aid schemes before committing yourself to anything. This unit will help prepare you for the important financial decisions involved with continuing education.
Teamwork and Group Work: Teamwork and Group Work

(Universal Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and the prerequisites of at least one path.)

College and university become more expensive every year. A growing number of young people find themselves deeply in debt at the end of their studies. It is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of different financial aid schemes before committing yourself to anything. This unit will help prepare you for the important financial decisions involved with continuing education.
Financial Aid and Loans: Financial Aid and Loans

(Universal Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and the prerequisites of at least one path.)

College and university become more expensive every year. A growing number of young people find themselves deeply in debt at the end of their studies. It is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of different financial aid schemes before committing yourself to anything. This unit will help prepare you for the important financial decisions involved with continuing education.
Community College: Community College

(Path Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and both Career Prerequisites OR both College Prerequisites.)

For some jobs, it makes the most sense to follow your high school education with a course of study at a community college. This unit discusses the advantages of attending community college and prepares you for the application process.
Transition to College: Transition to College

(Universal Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and the prerequisites of at least one path.)

College has very little in common with high school and high school students are often unprepared for the mixture of freedom and responsibility that college offers. In the excitement of beginning college and university, many students miss out on a wealth of unique opportunities. This unit focuses on how to discover and take advantage of these opportunities.
Internet Literacy: Internet Literacy

(Universal Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and the prerequisites of at least one path.)

This unit strengthens your ability to use internet research tools to complete your school projects and realize your personal goals.
Community College: Community College

(Path Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and both Career Prerequisites OR both College Prerequisites.)

For some jobs, it makes the most sense to follow your high school education with a course of study at a community college. This unit discusses the advantages of attending community college and prepares you for the application process.
Building Work Experience: Building Work Experience

(Path Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and Junior High Prerequisite)

Congratulations for exploring this issue so early in your life. If you are able to start gaining experience before you even enter high school, you will have much more to show when you start applying for colleges and you will be a more desirable candidate for the jobs that you apply for.

This unit may help you to plan for new internships or part time jobs. It may ask you to reconsider the decisions you have made about what classes to take and it will encourage you to explore community involvement.
Community Service: Community Service

(Universal Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and the prerequisites of at least one path.)

Whether you have your sights set on college or a quick transition into the working world, you will benefit from doing community service. It has a bad name since it is used as a mild punishment for small-time criminals. But, it helps to remember that many of the other people doing community service are doing so voluntarily. As a young person you have higher chances of being given responsibility and the chance to exercise forms of leadership and initiative in the field of community service than you do in the professional world. There is the added advantage that employers and admissions officers are generally impressed with applicants who have dedicated time to the less fortunate, to their local communities or to important causes.
Extra-Curricular Activities: Extra-Curricular Activities

(Universal Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and the prerequisites of at least one path.)

No matter what your interests are, it is a good idea for you to get involved in extra-curricular activities. This sort of involvement can have a huge impact on your chances of getting into the college you want, receiving a helpful financial aid package and finding a job that you like. This unit helps you to assess the extra-curricular opportunities that you have and to predict which of them would be most helpful to you with the set of goals and ambitions that you have. These activities will also raise some questions of time management.
Community Service: Community Service

(Universal Elective: Unlocked after completion of the Core and the prerequisites of at least one path.)

Whether you have your sights set on college or a quick transition into the working world, you will benefit from doing community service. It has a bad name since it is used as a mild punishment for small-time criminals. But, it helps to remember that many of the other people doing community service are doing so voluntarily. As a young person you have higher chances of being given responsibility and the chance to exercise forms of leadership and initiative in the field of community service than you do in the professional world. There is the added advantage that employers and admissions officers are generally impressed with applicants who have dedicated time to the less fortunate, to their local communities or to important causes.

Mentor of the Month
OliveJuice

Mentee of the Month
ekrl09

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This is the icouldbe.org Curriculum.

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