u/URM4J3STY

I remember roughly this happening in one of the scenes: An older lady was standing out the screen door on her porch(farmhouse barn type area) and a man inside was holding her at gunpoint then a sniper ended up shooting the guy with the gun. Another bad guy appears and tells the older man to get in his truck

Got a notification for an incoming text today on Vesta, couldn’t grab it, and it just vanished from the queue with an “Abandoned” label.

Seen plenty of abandoned calls but never a text. How does that even work?

Hello! This question is specifically for AVID teachers.

I’m a 911 dispatcher, and part of my role includes community outreach. That’s how I got invited to guest speak for several AVID classes at a local middle school, grades 6 through 8. Usually for school visits and career fairs I just talk about my career and what we do at 911, but this one feels a little different. More catered. The guide they sent me is clearly built around a college pathway I didn’t take.

Here’s my hang-up: I didn’t go to college.

I graduated high school in 2019 and went straight into the workforce. For about three years I bounced around between jobs. Pizza parlor, front desk at a hotel, stuff like that, until I landed my grown-up job as a 911 dispatcher.

Most of the suggested questions on the rubric assume a college experience I don’t have. Here’s part of what they sent me:

• What was your middle school and high school experience like?
• What education and training did you do after high school?
• Why did you choose the college/university that you went to?
• What were obstacles/challenges that you faced as you prepared for college, as well as during college?
• What communication skills, especially reading, writing and speaking were most important once you got to college?
• What are the most important skills that you use now in your career?
• What do you know now that you wish you would have known in middle school?
• What advice would you give a young student beginning their path to college today?

They also added:

• Feel free to share anything from your education, life or career that you think would be helpful for our college focused students to hear.
• If you have visuals or artifacts that might help to show our students elements of your career or life, please feel free to include them in your presentation.

I can answer some of these pretty easily. Skills I use now, what I wish I knew in middle school, advice for younger students, etc. But a lot of the rubric centers around college specifically.

I don’t want to stand in front of these kids dodging half the questions, or come across like the guest speaker who skipped the path they’re being prepared for.

So I guess what I’m really asking is: what would actually land with these kids coming from someone like me? Is there stuff you wish more speakers without a college background talked about? Would it be bad to just lean into the career showcase angle, or is there a better way to approach this?

Any advice would mean a lot, especially from teachers who’ve had non-college speakers come through before.