Summit for 300 ninth graders held at Meijer Campus

Nearly 300 ninth graders from the Hamilton and Saugatuck school districts spent March 16 at the Meijer Campus in Holland for a summit to learn best practices for communications from 30 area business leaders.

Lisa Miller, director of the Meijer Campus, said the idea for the summit stemmed from area high school students who participated in a design thinking camp last summer sponsored by the Ottawa Area ISD and hosted by the Meijer Campus.

Miller said the students were given the problem: "How could the Meijer Campus best use its space and resources to support high school students on their journey to employment?" The students centered on a series of workshops, beginning with communications.

"They wanted to better understand good communication skills: how do you introduce yourself, how to send a good email," Miller said.

During the summit, students participated in two sessions: face-to-face and electronic communications. Sessions were led by an educator and a business leader.

Jessica Babcock is the vice president of human resources for Suburban Inns, which manages six hotels in West Michigan. The hotel industry offers a lot of entry-level positions and Babcock said communicating with young adults is sometimes difficult.

"The biggest gap I've noticed is their in-person communication," said Babcock, who helped planned the summit. "Because of social media and texting, they never answer phone calls or bother to set up a personal voice mail message. So, I'm often calling someone I hope is the person I want to reach because I only hear the generic message."

Lauren Robinson, teacher at Hamilton High School, said the summit was a positive opportunity for students to gain the transferrable soft skills that employers desire.

Miller said the summit will likely serve as an example of future programming hosted by the summit committee.