Download Encourage Lesson Plans

Structure Big Conversations About the Future

It’s never too early or too late to get students planning for the future! These ready-made lesson plans make it easy for you to get 7th-12th graders thinking and talking about college, careers, and how to get there.

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What's Inside

These lesson plans leverage the latest research, trends, and policy guidelines to prepare students for college, careers, and life after high school. They also align with the readiness indicators established by The School Superintendents Association's Redefining Ready! national initiative.

Save time and customize each lesson to fit your classroom’s unique needs. Each lesson includes interactive activities, discussion prompts, and assessment tools, allowing you to tailor the experience to your group size and available time (20 - 45 mins).

These lesson plans will help students:

Set education and career goals to prepare for the future
Reflect on their interests and values to discover career and educational paths that fit their unique talents
Learn how to make the most out of the Encourage app to discover colleges, scholarships, and financial aid tools to make informed decisions
And more!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is myOptions Encourage?

myOptions Encourage is a free college and career planning program providing streamlined resources to broaden your impact and enhance your efforts in guiding all students toward their paths after high school. myOptions Encourage serves about 1 million students annually across 5,000 school districts and 13,000 high schools in all 50 states.

Encourage is the name of our free college and career planning app for students. Find it online through your browser, on iOS and Android.

Why should students download the Encourage app?

The Encourage app is free and combines goal setting and milestone tracking with resources for exploration, career planning, and paying for college. Explore careers, match with colleges and scholarships, define your goals, and plan your future—all in one app. Find it online through your browser or in the app store for iOS and Android.

How is the program free?

Students with the Encourage app have the option of being contacted by our network of partnering colleges and universities looking for students like them. This network allows us to offer the program for free and provides previously unknown or out-of-reach opportunities, making college more accessible.

Students can control their recruiting preferences at any time and the app experience is the same whether they are included in recruitment or not.

Where does student data go?

Students who opt-in to recruitment from our network can expect information to be sent directly to colleges, universities, educational service providers, and career service providers for communication purposes. Unlike other college and career planning resources, we strictly utilize student information for educational purposes and never share student data with commercial marketers.

Where do you source information about scholarships, colleges, and careers?

The college, scholarship, and career data in the Encourage app comes from respected national sources including SuperCollege, O*NET, and IPEDS so you can rest assured your students are making decisions based on credible information.