As students in eighth grade history classes finished up their lessons, their teachers made an announcement: they were mandated to do an online course, called Xello. Xello is a career exploration program issued by the state of Florida to be done by 8th graders, which is required for highschool promotion.

Passed in the spring of 2023, Xello goes hand in hand with Florida’s Senate bill 240, which requires every high school in a school district to host a career fair.  To help with career decision making, Xello was launched. Students do lessons on skills such as decision making or transitioning to high school.

“It just opens their mind for more possibilities if they can’t get the career they want,” Luciano Suarez-Zavala, eighth grade theater major said.

Xello, for students, has a positive effect. At the end of middle school, students will start thinking about careers, as in high school they can take courses related to that career. Xello provides recommendations for careers so that students can have options.

“I think Xello is important because it gives kids the opportunity to find out more interests of what they might be interested in for careers, and it also gives them more options instead of just like the kids picking them. It’s personalized for the kids,” Hannah Leger, eighth grade theater major said.

Xello not only just provides students with career options and lessons based upon life skills, it provides students with perspectives on different careers. At the end of the program, students reflect on the different skills with a short paragraph.

“Some people are unsure of what they really want to be because they have different perspectives of what they want to spend the rest of their life doing. For me it worked pretty well, and I think it kind of matched up with what I wanted to do when I grew up,” Gabriella Costa, eighth grade dance major said.

A few months after its proposal, counselors attended classes on how to operate and use this program – after which, the program was announced and a due-date was set. Along with career preparation, Xello prepares students for the real world and college applications.

“In the Xello platform, students can set both short and long-term goals and track their progress with academic course planning and managing the college application process,” Sonia Parkih, school counselor said. 

As students set out for highschool and beyond, the foundation set by Xello will allow students to  be successful in their careers, from being a history teacher to being an astronaut in outer space.