VOLNEY, NY – Students in Bill Cahill’s fifth grade ELA RTI class at Volney Elementary School recently completed an exercise in a mock interview process. The exercise was based on the completion of reading Yes Pa, the autobiography of Fred Sarkis, a retired Rochester businessman who made visits to Volney Elementary for 13 years but is now unable to at age 95.
His story is about growing up in the Great Depression, having few friends at school and earning the lowest grades in his class of 40 students. But after learning three five-minute lessons from his father, young Fred embraces enthusiasm and starts to study and do his best.
As a result, he becomes number one in his class, earns a business scholarship and goes on to become a multimillionaire. During the reading of the book, students roleplay selling strawberries door-to-door during the Great Depression and later doing some mock interviews.
According to Cahill, “The students always enjoy the strawberry activity, but this year’s group was really excited about it, so I suggested we could take it to the next level and construct cover letters and resumes. They loved the idea so we started learning about what goes into a job interview. The learning was totally student-driven.”
The ten- and eleven-year-olds then went to work on constructing error-free cover letters and resumes based on age-appropriate templates. During this time students also learned about the process and value of peer-editing and having a heightened focus for the smallest of literary details.
As they worked through the process, student focus was on employable traits and character traits, as well as discussions on what makes a good employee. As students were constructing cover letters, resumes and watching videos on interview skills and peer interviewing, Cahill assembled a group to evaluate the students work and their sit-down interview with Cahill roleplaying Fred Sarkis.
On the day of the interviews, students dressed in their best business attire and were joined by Volney Colleagues Alison Fluent, Kelley Sluka, and retired FCSD Personnel Director Tom Greer. The evaluators looked over their resumes and cover letters and waited for the office assistant to bring each candidate into the simulated Fred Sarkis office.
Once seated, Cahill asked the candidates a number of character-based questions and scenarios. The last question for every candidate was “As you can see, I have a large stack of resumes here from other qualified candidates, why should I hire you over any of these other people?”
At the end of the interview the guest evaluators had an opportunity to ask questions or provide verbal feedback in addition to the written feedback they provided to each candidate.
At the conclusion of the exercise, the guest evaluators could not have been more impressed with the students.
“When I was your age I simply could not have done what you did today,” Tom Greer told the class. “I was totally blown away by your performance on this task.”
“Not only did the students soar to meet the rigor of the cover letter and resume portions,” Alison Fluent remarked, “but they excelled at their interpersonal skills during the mock interview. The attentiveness and encouragement of their peers in the room showed that these students had internalized the importance of the practice and had an investment on the success of the group as a whole.”
Echoing Greer and Fluent, Kelley Sluka added “I was thrilled to be a part of this project. The students were engaged and their preparation and excitement were evident. It was incredible to watch fifth graders respond to interview questions with more confidence and professionalism than many adults are able to demonstrate.”
“It was a great opportunity to see our students apply their soft skills to a real life situation,” said Volney Principal Elizabeth Stoddard. “They respectfully shared what they know and are able to do, as well as some of their achievements. It’s amazing to see how truly well rounded and accomplished our fifth grade students are at such a young age. They are already on a clear path to success.”
Mr. Cahill was happy to report that all candidates were successful and hired for each position.
“Today was an inspiring day for myself and these students that I am so proud of,” reflected Cahill. “I also see it as a nice tribute to my friend Fred Sarkis who inspired our students with his story and visits for so many years. Hopefully through this project the kids were able to see that they are capable of more than they thought they were. Their hard work and preparation was amazing and certainly an indicator to me that they understand the importance of positive character traits and will have future success as students and as active citizens in our community.”
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