New Opportunities for Young People to Gain Real-World Media Experience through HirePaths

For some time, I’ve been thinking about how to get students involved with researching careers and sharing what they’ve learned with other young people through our various HirePaths media platforms. This spring and summer, we’re jumping with both feet into two new opportunities for Kansas kids to learn a thing or two about careers and making meaningful media!

Kansas 4-H Cool Careers Video Production Contest

We’ve partnered with Kansas 4-H to offer 4-H club members of all ages the opportunity to create a Cool Careers: Student Edition episode and enter it in the Kansas State Fair! This pilot opportunity will help us determine if this is an assignment more students could tackle in the future.

Students will identify a career they’re interested in learning more about, conduct a video interview with a professional in that field about what they do, learn a skill necessary to do the professional’s work, then put together a 4- to 10-minute episode of Cool Careers Student Edition. This work can be done individually or in teams. Entries must be submitted by August 1, 2025.

The best of the best will be published on our website and promoted via social media next fall. Check out the contest guidelines!

HirePaths High School Media Creators Contest

We’re also working with Kansas high school media teachers to facilitate a pilot contest that will invite students to generate shorter forms of content for HirePaths, such as:

• Writing a Real Success Story (a brief profile story — not exceeding 500 words);
• Creating a social media post and infographic sharing information about a possible career; or
• Producing a How I Got Started video (a brief video interview — two minutes or less — to share the story of a professional’s personal career journey).

The goal of these projects is to introduce other kids and teens to high-demand careers they could consider pursuing in the future.

To motivate students to enter, we’ll be awarding small prizes to the top three entries in each category. Check out our contest guidelines here.

Our HirePaths team will provide suggestions for improvement to the top entries, giving students the opportunity to revise their work based on professional feedback. We will publish the entries that meet our standards through HirePaths and award first-, second- and third-place awards to the best entries in each category. To be considered for the spring 2025 awards, entries must be submitted by April 18.

If this experiment succeeds, we will roll out a larger media contest for the 2025-26 school year. If you’re a teacher who is willing to help bring this opportunity to your students for the pilot run this spring, please reach out to [email protected]. A virtual information session for students is scheduled for March 4 at 10 a.m. and will be recorded for anyone who is interested but can’t attend. 

We’re super-excited to see what students come up with for both contests! If you have other ideas or suggestions for incorporating student work into HirePaths — including ideas about improving future contests — please reach out to me at [email protected].

Kristin Brighton is one of the co-founders of New Boston Creative Group LLC and HirePaths. She’s a mother of two teenagers and an elected member of her community’s local school board