Before students ever step onto a jobsite, they need more than technical skills. They need to know how to communicate with a supervisor, work through a disagreement with a teammate, handle unexpected feedback, and show up ready every day.
From September 8 through 11, 2026, the STAAR Foundation delivered its Youth Pathway to Excellence (YPTE) Power Skills & Internship Readiness program in partnership with the Construct My Future Internship and Oklahoma City Public Schools. Seniors from Northwest Classen High School and Capitol Hill High School spent four mornings (12 instructional hours in total) preparing for the interpersonal, emotional, and professional expectations of a real workplace.
A Four-Day Learning Journey
Each day added a new layer of readiness, moving students from self-awareness to practical workplace behavior.
DAY 1
Know Yourself. Know Where You're Going.
Students set SMART goals tied to three milestones: completing Construct My Future, graduating high school, and taking their next career step. Using the True Colors personality framework, they identified their own strengths and explored how different personality types make construction teams stronger.
DAY 2
Discover What You Can Do.
Students evaluated their strengths and growth areas, compared a job to a long-term career, and explored construction and skilled-trade pathways, salaries, and training requirements. They also practiced a six-step decision-making tool on realistic scenarios involving safety, equipment, transportation, and supervisor corrections.
DAY 3
Nobody Builds Alone.
The focus shifted to wellness, communication, and teamwork. Students connected sleep, nutrition, hygiene, focus, and transportation to jobsite performance and safety, then worked in mixed-personality teams during the True Colors Challenge to solve jobsite communication and workflow problems.
DAY 4
Show Up Ready.
Students applied the FEEL → PAUSE → THINK → CHOOSE model to manage frustration and feedback, practiced conflict resolution, and worked through real internship scenarios like oversleeping, unclear instructions, phone policies, and safety concerns. Each student finished the week with a personal Internship Success Plan.
The Results
Exit surveys from seven of the ten participating students showed growth across every major skill area measured.
+20%
Increase in overall confidence, rising from 3.35 to 4.03 on a 5-point scale across 31 skill measures
71.4%
Discovered a construction career they didn't know about before
85.7%
Expressed strong interest in exploring trades further, including welding, power line work, roofing, carpentry, and heavy machinery operation
100%
Identified at least one adult, teacher, mentor, or supervisor they could ask for help
100%
Rated the experience "helpful" or "very helpful"
Skill Area
Before
After
Growth
Conflict Negotiation
3.18
4.18
+32%
Teamwork
3.21
4.04
+26%
Construction Career Exposure
3.32
4.04
+22%
Communication
3.32
4.00
+20%
Problem Solving & Decision Making
3.20
3.80
+19%
True Colors & Self-Awareness
3.50
4.14
+18%
Emotional Intelligence
3.52
4.14
+18%
Goal Setting
3.76
4.00
+6%
Students also rated themselves highly on internship readiness, scoring 4.57 out of 5 on the importance of attendance and punctuality and 4.43 out of 5 on feeling prepared to participate successfully in the internship.
In Their Own Words
"That I can be a leader sometimes."
"Listening. I def improved on that this week."
"Think before you do it, be positive, never give up, work as a team."
"Understanding myself better through TRUE COLORS."
Preparing the Person Behind the Pathway
The numbers are encouraging, but the bigger story is what students carried out of the classroom. They left the week with a stronger understanding of who they are, what they can contribute, how to work with others, and how the choices they make today can shape their future.
Thank you to the STAAR Foundation, Oklahoma City Public Schools, Northwest Classen High School, and Capitol Hill High School for investing in these students as they step into the Construct My Future Internship with confidence.
Note: Survey results reflect seven respondents of the ten students who attended and should be read as an early sample from the first cohort.
