This episode of The Bridge spotlights the decade-long professional partnership and deep friendship between Crystal Meyer and Christina Baroldi, two educators who discovered unexpected synergy when they were paired as EdTech TOSAs. They reflect on how their complementary strengths, shared competitiveness, and commitment to students transformed their work—from redesigning district programs to earning Golden Bell Awards.
The conversation explores their journey into career readiness, student-centered design, and helping young people understand themselves through tools like the RIASEC framework. Throughout the episode, they emphasize the power of mentorship, collaboration, and trusting kids to chart their own paths. Ultimately, their story is a celebration of belonging, growth, and the magic that happens when educators find the right partner to learn and lead with.
From curating artifacts as a museum registrar to curating student futures as a career education administrator, Crystal Meyer brings a unique perspective to education. She is dedicated to leading with innovation, specifically regarding digital equity and access. This passion is evident in her accolades for creating an attendance-boosting Esports lab, career readiness initiatives, and securing major technology grants. Crystal currently serves as a Coordinator in the Career Education Unit at the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE).
đź”— Crystal on LinkedIn
Christina Baroldi has been in the education space for the past 27 years, ranging from Classroom Teacher to Instructional Specialist and Verizon Innovative Learning Coach. Her passion is all about leading with innovation and doing what's best for digital equity, access, and student achievement. She currently drives digital transformation at Orange Unified School District (OUSD), where she leads Golden Bell award-winning programs like iTeach and iLead to unlock authentic digital learning experiences for all students.
Cate Tolnai: okay. We're just gonna jump in. Welcome to The Bridge. We have happy to be here, crystal and Christina and I am. so happy. I was just telling this to both of you.
I'll say it again. This is exactly the format that I envisioned for Bridge. having two people on that have either mentored each other or been mentored or just basically supported each other and had been going through this crazy education existence that we live and you support each other.
And so it's so fun to have you both on, and especially 'cause I know you both so well from previously working with you. But I'll start by just letting you all introduce yourself and then explain your little connection between the two of you.
Crystal Meyer: Oh, awesome. hi, I am Crystal. currently I'm a coordinator for career education at Orange County Department of Education.
Very exciting work. I'm surprised it ended up in this space, but I'm so happy and, it's, I'm not
Cate Tolnai: surprised
Crystal Meyer: and I, yeah, thanks Cate. And I'm so excited to share that. So a big part of my journey was when I moved from the classroom to TOSA work and EdTech and assessment, and that's where I met Christina.
Like we were hired as, I was like the secondary EdTech tosa. And she was the elementary EdTech tosa. and to be totally honest. I was so terrified of Christina. She had so much street cred. She's so
Cate Tolnai: scary.
Crystal Meyer: She knew everything. She knew everybody. And I was just fresh out of the classroom. I was teaching a p art history online and I was also teaching at a community day school, which is an alternative ed, school and program.
And I remember thinking, why did they hire me to work with her? I, am so outta my league, and I just didn't have a collaborative experience of education at that point. So my expectation wasn't that this person is gonna, mentor me and show me the way I felt. oh man, game on. I gotta figure my life out and step up my game and, here enters Christina.
And then here's Christina.
Christina Baroldi: let's, even back up a step further. Yes, we are. Hi, I'm Christina and I am the instructional specialist of innovation and technology as well as the Tk-8 career readiness lead in the district here. And Crystal and I did meet by happenstance, not knowing that we were meant to be together over 10 years ago when we took district positions.
definitely it was someone else's. Magical insight to see, like these two needed to be together because we, haven't been apart since aw, different hats and different roles. And, that year was a big growth year for us, where, again, elementary definitely labels you as being a certain way, but I needed to grow and it was a perfect opportunity and I didn't know what I needed.
Until I got to work with Crystal and to see not only her, online, again, her masterful online presence with, AP history, teaching to the things that she does. So like that lens with what I brought with student engagement from elementary, we just, it just ignited something in both of us.
That led us see the world in a different way from how we integrate technology to support student outcomes and how we support teachers and train teachers, and then even to how we work with each other because,
That really was like the pull and the push because you know what got her into some kindergarten classrooms that year and in two and me into high school classrooms. And into general and into non-traditional settings and all the places where Crystal brings a wealth of expertise and to really bring us to the truest point of what we do is that this is all about the students.
Yeah. Yeah. That regardless of the age, kids are kids.
Crystal Meyer: Yeah. Yes.
Christina Baroldi: And teachers are teachers and we're all here for the same reason, and we all have something in common, and it's just about being ready to hear it and to listen to them and get them to the table about what we're all trying to accomplish together.
It was a beautiful marriage and since then we just haven't stopped it. I was just saying that even though she's left our district, she is at the county, which is Again, serendipitous that she is also now, which wasn't the intention. I know she didn't go to the county doing this. She still is overseeing something that I support, so I love that.
Cate Tolnai: So
Christina Baroldi: I, I get to continue and grow with her and call her and say never guess what just happened, and this is what I'm thinking. Am I on the right track? Course, and I can process my thoughts with her and here are the things I'm visualizing. Do you see it? And for us to come together and yes.
And yeah. Have you considered yes or what do
Crystal Meyer: you think? But I will say, when we talk and we do process, Christina's better at this than I am. We also coach each other. Like sometimes I'll be sitting down with Chrissy and I'll be asking her questions and she's not giving me answers or solutions.
She's giving me questions back. And then sometimes it takes five questions and I'll get frustrated, be like, okay, just, tell me something they'll coach me right now. but I love that she still like, engages in the process and even though like we've built like a professional working relationship and a friendship that we, still hold each other in that high regard and we still can switch roles and really make sure we bring out the best in each other and grow each other.
Cate Tolnai: What, do you think Do you, have you ever talked about like that moment when you realized that like you you were needing each other in a different way than just like coworkers? was there something that happened or like a project you worked on where you looked at each other and you're like, oh, I see you.
Oh, Christina's yes. What is it? What is it? I,
Christina Baroldi: I do think so. So we had here in the program, or excuse me, we had a program here in the district before we were one-to-one. And it was something that we inherited after year one. And it's, we called it, it was labeled, I teach lowercase I and teach. And it was a rollout of iPads in classrooms.
And it was something that teachers got to opt in for, but it came with mentorship, it came with a scope and sequence. So what, were we trying to accomplish to impact the instruction? So we inherited something that we're, we both we, coached the cycle once.
And it was interesting, both of us together, coming alongside the person who was already doing it at the district office, our building capacity. Each other came to a point of is this working for what's, not working? Something is as off. Yeah. And so then, it was like, what is it?
And so the process of redesigning, ah, the program, it became the program for the next six years.
Cate Tolnai: Wow.
Christina Baroldi: And that's what ended up being the prop at sunsetted. And it is still tenant, it's, still the core tenants of what other device rollout and coaching programs are here in our district.
Crystal Meyer: Yeah, and the interesting thing about revamping that program was.
By identifying the challenges and the areas of growth that program had. When we inherited it, it was a time for us to get to know what we were each best at.
at that time I had done a lot of online learning, digital design, and it was like, oh, I can do that. or with Chrissy, it's look at this like coaching cycle.
let's chat about that. reflecting on this now, and I didn't think of it this way before, it gave us an opportunity to Show each other like what we were best at, what our passions were. 'cause our passions really did trickle into the process of evolving that program and fitting the needs, that we wanted to, for our, teachers and their students.
Cate Tolnai: Okay. So fast forward to us all coming together. we met under the umbrella of the Crowd Center for Innovation, but in different ways.
So how so Krause Center for Innovation? Small. Nonprofit located physically in Northern California, but I was at the time trying to get programming down to Southern Cal.
no, at that time it was the pandemic. And so I was co-creating a program to get teachers state certified as online and blended educators, and that's where I met Christina.
Crystal Meyer: Yep.
Cate Tolnai: And how did you even find out about the KCI? I am so it's, I don't think I've ever asked you that.
Christina Baroldi: Crystal, how did you, Christina?
for me, I learned about it from Crystal, so
Cate Tolnai: I,
Christina Baroldi: oh, do I have the order different? No, it is, it's, actually Crystal is first, so Crystal brought me alongside. Oh, it's very interesting. oh my God, I'm so glad you're describing
Cate Tolnai: this. Okay, good.
Christina Baroldi: For, other reasons. Crystal, again, we, do.
A lot of reading and searching for, we're, always trying to, stay on top of things. Yeah. And it was Crystal who said, Hey, have you heard of this?
And so she said, I'm thinking about doing this. And that's Got it. That's where the Merit program came in first. Or, did you, so Crystal maybe correct me.
So did you already do OBI and then K Merit? So you, yeah,
Crystal Meyer: I did OBI.
Christina Baroldi: You were the first cohort
Cate Tolnai: Crystal. or maybe second. You were like early.
Crystal Meyer: Yeah. And then I think I was like, this was wonderful, Christina, you need to do this, but hey, let's do merit together.
Cate Tolnai: Got it.
Crystal Meyer: But I found KCI because I went to q
and I was really happy.
I might have his name a little wrong, but Steve McGriff. Oh yeah, you got it. He did a graphic design session at CUE
Cate Tolnai: Uhhuh
Crystal Meyer: and at that time there wasn't, no one was using Canva. nobody really had a lot of like tools or, best practices to share it. It wasn't really the universal need that it is now, with online and blended learning.
So I remember just thinking oh, jackpot. Yeah.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah.
Crystal Meyer:When he was presenting, he was referencing KCI. And then that was like, okay, I love what he has. Nobody else is doing that. I need to follow this group and continue to figure out how I can grow myself with them.
Cate Tolnai: That's extra fun because Steve is how I found the KCA.
Crystal Meyer: Oh my gosh. How funny.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah, I know
Crystal Meyer: Steve.
Cate Tolnai: Oh, shout out. I'm totally gonna let him know. He, it was when I was in the county office in Santa Clara, and so like in 2016 I had come, I had met him through another team member and he was like, I think you just need to be adjunct. I think you just need to do this.
And I was like, yeah, sure. Okay. like at that time, sure. Everything sounds great. And, yeah. And so he was the one who kind of shepherd me into that space. That's so fun. What a fun connection. I love that. I didn't know that. I extra love that. Yeah. okay, so we're all connected through this.
Why, I can't imagine you're not so busy at this time in your life. So how, like, how do you. Decide, okay, I'm gonna jump into this program because I've never taken the program, I've just directed the program. So yeah. How do you make that decision as a teacher that like you're gonna dive into one of these
Crystal Meyer:programs?
I think sometimes you hit the point in your school district and I was substitute teacher, admin, and district. I didn't move other districts or organizations until I'm in the role that I'm in now that I started in July. But you just run out of. Things that Like really grab your interests and make you think oh, cool.
That's what's next. 'cause people like us, we're on every committee we go to every training. There's people that I endlessly love to work with in our district, and we all continue to grow each other, but we just, I know Christine and I both share this. We both have very high professional standards for ourselves.
Yeah. And because we are instructional leaders in our district, Some people that may might make them rest on their laurels, I made it, here I am. But for us, I think it really created this imperative that, oh, we have to continue to bring it. We have to continue, evolve and innovate and make sure that the people we support have everything they need.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah.
Crystal Meyer:and so that, that's where I was coming from. And then just like naturally, like I'm very creative and curious. those programs were so unique.
Cate Tolnai:: Those
Crystal Meyer:opportunities really don't exist, outside of a structured, like master's program or Right. Or something else.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah. That's a really good point.
Crystal Meyer: Yeah.
Christina Baroldi: and so Crystal brought her passion after experiencing it and sharing what she learned. It being competitive as well of if that's what you know how to do, I love it. I need to know how to do it too. So again, wanting to make sure that, because all of the things that we, learned, that I definitely learned in.
OBI was something that helped me bring additional polish and lens to all of the things that I do not in just designing instructional materials. Oh, interesting. Ing those types of things. Because what's good for our students and what's good for that design and the engagement is also the same for the what we should be bringing to our professional development.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah.
Christina Baroldi:Yep. So all of those elements, it just dovetailed in and it just enhanced what we do with our teachers. So that was again. A way to stay as relevant. Yeah. And innovative and engaging as possible. Yeah. Because what if we aren't, then we start to doggy paddle, and then when we, oh my gosh. And I don't wanna be that doggy paddle person, right?
No. We gotta keep swimming.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah. And then you have to learn how to dive and then you have to do a back flip. And then it's but see, this is what we all three have in common, right? yeah, we, I'm a very competitive person, ladies. This is not a mystery. And, I love being in the middle of it.
I also love being in the middle so that I can help others, see that they're close to being in the middle. I love that, And when I first started working directly with adults, teachers, I was like. Oh my God. This is what I love. I was teaching middle school for 10 years because I needed to get to the place where I could teach others who were teaching kids.
But do you ever think about, does, your heart still live in the classroom? Either of you? Oh.
Crystal Meyer: I fantasize about it all the time. I'm like, really? If I went back to the classroom, it'd be so much fun. I have so much I could share with the students, and I actually made a professional move like that at one point in time.
Okay. Christina wanted to kill me over. We were killing it in ed tech. We were doing so many amazing, innovative things. We became like the guys at the district office, everyone wanted to work with us. We were proud of that we were having a lot of success and students were reaching outcomes and teachers were happy.
Yeah. Yeah. And then I was like, I wanna go back to the classroom. And once it came in my head, I was like, like I felt like I came outta the classroom too young. Oh, interesting. And so I did go back Okay. For a few years, and I was really glad I made that decision. a lot of people thought I was out of my mind.
I had a lot of people talk me out of it. But I was glad I did it. I'm really proud that I did it. I don't know if I would be crazy enough to do that again.
Christina Baroldi: Yeah, so wait,
Crystal Meyer: go ahead.
Christina Baroldi:I did. Oh, I was gonna say, and let me tell you, I was heartbroken when she said, oh yeah, she, to go back to the classroom, but it, you know what, you looking back, you can't change a thing because it also gave us an additional opportunity.
To get, to continue to work together because, as things shifted, there were other programs. And so the program that we talked about that we got to revamp together, sunsetted, and then we brought in another one, which we did win A Golden, Bel for it was the ILEAD program, and it was, oh, we're talking about that next.
so, it was a, grant program where we, again, so much of what we do is prescriptive of we're gonna give everybody this, and everyone needs to do that. What about if we, decided to let teachers identify the need and what they wanted to do for it and what, resources they need.
And and then we would, we did, it was live action research across all the district and anyone who wanted to do it. And it was a couple years opt of, opportunities and. While Crystal went back into the classroom, she signed up to participate and guess who got to be her coach and facilitate the program for her.
But so again, for me it was learning of everybody, what is it you wanna do? Let's figure it out.
Crystal Meyer: And, but also for me, I got to be on the other end of the program. Yeah. So it was almost like a weird thought experiment.
Cate Tolnai: Oh my God. We
Crystal Meyer: reaped benefits of years later. Not at the time. We're like, she's the coach.
I'm the official participant. And we had a lot of feedback for each other, like being interesting in both of those roles. So we didn't plan it that way. I was just excited to, engage in this program. But, yeah, it was, fun. It was challenging and so it, it
Christina Baroldi: gave us the opportunity yes. To, switch and wear hats and process both sides of it as a participant, but also to be.
Growing and learning together, because again, I, when I say like live action research, we were doing it and learning and refining and, it was something we ended up doing for four years. And then, COVID, was not our friend for these types of things because of how we, were all pulled in different directions.
But again, thankfully it gave us opportunity and to grow each other in this way. Just so much has happened. But yes. So Crystal, going back into the classroom, I will say that one of the things that I would love to do, and we did pitch it, I think that it would be the best to be part-time in the classroom and part-time a coach.
But the funding is never there because it requires two people teaching and two people coaching. Because you'd have at 50 50, what are you not doing? And because I would love to have that demonstration classroom. So would I go there back in the classroom? In a heartbeat, If I could with the right work wife to be, yeah.
Hey, when I'm here, anybody can come in and see anything that we're like, whatever we're supposed to be doing, let's model it. Let's make it, let's show how it lives.
Cate Tolnai: That's so, cool.
Christina Baroldi:And then be able to come out and also coach. Or train or do the other pieces and have another partner teacher that has the same role to do that.
like I said, the, I was told it wasn't necessarily cost effecti. I'm like,
Cate Tolnai: what let's math, that. Why is it that hard? Why would that, what am I missing? What am I missing?
Christina Baroldi:: so again, I, it was something I had pitched and. It didn't land, but I thought what an amazing opportunity. Oh my gosh.
To have it always be a showcase training room. Oh my gosh. Come in and do whatever you wanna do and to have it just be this open place to learn. Yeah. And and to visit. Because that's always the hard part. We are concrete, tangible, like we need to experience things as educators. Yeah. And let's go in and see it.
come in and see it. Yes. I want it to be that place. Just like Crystal was saying, like when you go, now that we've learned so much, being back in the classroom is Let me show you. Yeah. Yes you can. And I, it just, that would be my dream of dreams is to interesting teach part-time and coach part-time and be that place because we still have to flex the muscles.
Cate Tolnai: I think you're right. And I think there's something to be said about having that authentic audience in the students, but then also Oh, I can just, see like, before I got my credential or I got a certificate as a ed tech specialist, which made me feel confident enough to be a tosa, a tech TOSA back in 2013.
So before that though, I was middle school teaching and I was that classroom that like the, Tours would always go into, because I was like, whatever, just come look. I, don't care. Even if it's messy, it's gonna be what it is. And yeah, I'm gonna be using technology and that was flashy at the time, so I agree.
like being a demo space. A reliable demo space for anyone. Wow. That would be amazing. I wanna make this for happen for you. You just go like a charter school or something.
Crystal Meyer:Yeah, it would definitely work in a charter format. Yeah. But I also think mindsets like, you have to remember in education, like it's very hard to be creative and present new ideas when it comes to like HR formats and structure.
Yeah. the answer's always we don't do that because we haven't done it before. And this is like where my joke always comes up. Chrissy's heard me say this a million times or nine times out of 10. My response is, we used to churn our butter, but now yeah. Yeah. like we're so stuck in because we've never done it, we can't change something, and have the bravery to do that.
Cate Tolnai: And
Crystal Meyer:r: it's challenging when you're a steward of public funds. It's a huge responsibility. Yep. So I think that's where the fear comes from. but it's just something to remember about our profession that it's hard to make changes because we're not structured for change.
Cate Tolnai: That makes me mad. It's hard to not be mad about that.
Crystal Meyer:: Yep.
Cate Tolnai: It's frustrating. So what do we do with all that? We go change lives with programs that win Golden bells is what we do. Yes, that's right. Oh, we're going there.
Crystal Meyer:: So tell us. I wanna hear all of it. Golden bell time. Ding, ding, All right, so we have two golden bells in this group. What? Yeah. So with Ilead, with the program that Christina was talking about.
and then our, newest one is Portola Prep Days, which is a career education CTE enrichment program that wasn't intended to be a Golden Belt applicant. It was my merit project. and I had never engaged career education in a formal way until I just, that project dawned on me in merit. Yeah.
So I'm trying to think where to start with this. So merit, the task in merit is to create an innovative. Program. And I think at first glance, when you hear innovation, it's always a tool. It's always a technology. Yeah. It's always a physical thing, not necessarily a mindset or engagement of a program. And, that's something I, that merit really, broaden my horizons in regards to, is okay, what is innovation?
Like, how do I define it? I don't have to define it in this, such a discreet, individual way. And so the concept really came from like when students sign up to high school and they're thinking about their future in a world of work, what classes they're gonna take, they just get a list of classes.
And Orange Unified, statewide has one of the most robust, successful high school career technical education programs. The interesting thing is a lot of students like don't know that they don't know that there's a farm at Orange High School. There's literally a farm, cow sheeps pigs, all that. I didn't even really know that.
they didn't know they can get their pilot's license in high school at Canyon High School. there's, so many opportunities that are lost upon the students because they just don't know. And then I had to reflect on my parent population. My parents work really hard, multiple jobs. A lot of the parents at the Title One school is working at Don't Drive and Information Night is not going to drive the message home.
So I was thinking like, how can I create a fun experience where kids are making these choices for themselves and having learning experiences that motivate them. So what we did with Portola Prep days is. We basically created theme days around CTE Pathways. So one day would be the Arts Media Entertainment Pathways.
we were really lucky to have a lot of support from the executive director of curriculum and instruction in Orange Unified. She'd worked with us a lot. She knew we cared about outcomes. She knew we followed the rules, but we also were creative and innovative. So we were so lucky to have her blessing.
And she said, if you need subs, I can give you as many subs as you want.
Cate Tolnai: Okay, cool. Yeah, that's huge.
Crystal Meyer: Yeah. So then we would get subs for all the teachers at the high school. Bring them to the middle school and we would schedule, a CTE teacher in each of the classrooms at Portola. So as the kids rotate throughout their day, they get a hands-on lesson from a CTE teacher.
for example, the photo teacher would, we would order an iPad cart and the kids would do a photo lesson. The criminal justice teacher would bring his impairment goggles. The nickname for this is Drunk Goggles. Where you put them on and it recreates impairment and then they learn how to do the impairment like the DUI evaluation like a police officer would.
Interesting. so the kids were getting these really fun classes and then the moment clicks in, I can take this class at Orange High. Yeah. Oh, I wanna take that. I love Mr. Kilgore. I wanna be in this class. I can't wait.
Cate Tolnai: Amazing.
Crystal Meyer: So it was like bringing a field trip to the school? To the
Cate Tolnai: school.
Crystal Meyer: And the teachers loved it because the teachers had a little companion teacher for the day, so they could make another teacher friend.
and also our teachers didn't even know these classes were being
Cate Tolnai: right.
Crystal Meyer: A lot of our teachers at the middle school we were at, taught at that. Like I would say the average is like 10 to 15 years they've been at that school and they had no idea of the awesome programs and workforce opportunities that awaited these students in high school.
So that's the program in a nutshell. We've done a lot of things like spice it up we would do, like a military piece on the theme days for public service. We'd have military vehicles on campus, so cool firetruck on campus. the police officers would bring like the canines. The best part was we didn't spend any money on this, right?
It's subs and really amazing and, it was really fun. It's really successful. Portola Middle schools in its fourth year of implementation. Then the other schools in Orange Unified have replicated our model and customized for what fits the needs of their middle schools. So it's out there.
Cate Tolnai: And it just, last night, you're, you, got to hold your golden bell.
Crystal Meyer: Yeah. And it was amazing. that's cool. I didn't get to go on stage to accept it. like when you work in the background and you do those things, it's the principal, they're the face of the school. Sure. The board members are, but I just, that was almost even more satisfying because I don't have to be there.
Boots on the ground present. Oh
Cate Tolnai: yeah.
Crystal Meyer: For this program to continue and be successful. Like it's a beautiful thing to hand it off and gift that and, know that it still matters.
It's not just you like hoping it matters. Oh my
Cate Tolnai: God, that's the dream you hate. I hate starting something so cool.
And then if I leave being like, oh, please don't mess it up, or please let it sustain and be relevant or please don't let it be dependent on my
Crystal Meyer: crazy. Absolutely. and it's funny now looking back at that because it's like now I'm in career education full time. And now I have a completely different perspective of workforce ecosystems and labor market gaps and oh my gosh.
connecting students to workforce and changing their lives and, it's a big world out there. There's a lot of opportunity. It's exciting, it's scary, and it's all the things.
Cate Tolnai: All the things.
Crystal Meyer:: It
Christina Baroldi: was such, I, didn't know that it was such an underserved area that was so needed. For us supporting students and supporting, again, the Title one school, but again, the opportunity for them to go off because we've lost so many of our auto shops and our pottery shops like, and all the things, that we used to have in, the actual culinary programs in our high schools.
For the students who may not have been going into an AP class or going into another class, and Those flagship items that were very visible for the kid that needed to be a little more tactile or have another option have faded by the wayside. And this really reinvigorated for them and I, would say more importantly for us, 'cause it really created for us that sense of urgency of what else needs to be done.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah. And so what else needs to be done? where do you go from here? Is sustaining the vision or do they, is there a vision for something else?
Crystal Meyer: We have so many crazy ideas.
Cate Tolnai: I have no doubt.
Crystal Meyer: the one space Christine and I have now intersect in our new roles is TK 12. Career readiness.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah.
Crystal Meyer: so where we go from here is the traditional sense of career education is get students into a CTE pathway, and then hopefully that aligns to a post-secondary option. not all students need to go to college. Yeah. that could be a certification, that could be employment, whatever that student needs for a career, that's a good fit for them.
But that's the issue. How does a student know that a career is a good fit for them? And that's where career readiness comes in. And so in career education, there's all these work-based learning continuums, these articulations, like how do we get students to and through, To their future job.
And that's career readiness. So my opinion, there's a huge gap in what that looks like in a formal sense, for, students, across the United States. But where what we've been doing in Orange County for the past three years is creating career connected learning opportunities to create career connected schools.
And so that is having students explore their interests. Their values, the things that make them happy.
And if they can do that and engage in that dialogue, in the work they do in the classroom, and when they do have opportunities to learn about workforce and careers. Then when they're old enough to make that decision in high school, they'll make a good decision.
They'll make something based on, they'll make a decision based on what makes them happy and what skills they'll have. Yeah, it's a strengths based approach.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah.
Crystal Meyer: And so what that's been looking like is, something called the Holland Code. Have you heard of the RIASEC? No. Uhuh. Okay. So John Holland was a military recruiter.
He was also a psychologist, and he developed a test in the fifties. That is called the RIASEC, so that's R-I-A-S-E-C, and those domains represent different like interests and skill sets. You take the test, and you get three domains that kind of show you where your skills are, uhhuh and what type of workplace environments you would be the most successful in.
And so those domains are realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, conventional. Now the cool thing about the RIASEC, it's just, it's one way to identify what your strengths are. And where you might fit in the world of work. But it changes over time. It changes what they, yeah,
Cate Tolnai: right.
Crystal Meyer: It changes with experience.
It changes with career exposure because students shouldn't be picking and marrying a profession early on in their elementary and even middle school life. They should open themselves up to experiences and opportunities to align with what they're good at and what makes 'em happy and who they are as a person.
So that's the work we've been doing in Orange County. With Orange County Department of Education, really connecting with our schools and helping them personalize a career readiness program. Or experiences that supports the needs of their community.
Cate Tolnai: and it sounds like you're just, what you're creating are programs that are, founded in trusting kids.
like I trust you. you're not gonna make the perfect decision, but you're gonna make a decision. And I trust that you're gonna figure out what makes you happy. And if you don't, I'm here to catch you. that's beautiful. I really think that's like special and not happening everywhere.
Christina Baroldi: My conversation, oh, go ahead, crystal.
No,
I'll let
Crystal Meyer:you jump in.
Christina Baroldi:: so I was just gonna say, so that's what I got to share. again, we've implemented this at 2 schools. Two elementary schools within our feeder patterns. We have four high schools, comprehensive high schools that have their path, their, track of feeder schools.
And we have one that I went to talk to the parents today, and it's a, title one. School site. And that was exactly how I was explaining this opportunity because again, we wanna make sure we gauge the community with understanding what we're going to be bringing to the school site and the opportunity because they need to be engaged and part of the process.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah, because
Christina Baroldi: they'll be supporting it. This is again, a complete wraparound from changing the parents and how they see their kids. Changing this whole dynamic, the ecosystem of the school site. Yeah. And how we're preparing our children for later workforce readiness. Because it is college and or career, right?
Mean to me it's, career. But it's that, what are you doing with that? You don't always have to go to college to To get into your career. It's, what else might you wanna do? And when I explained this, I guess this movement Is really the right way to say it. And this shift in pedagogy that when I said, if we could equip your children in knowing themselves better.
Yes. Yes. When they know themselves better and they see themselves, then they can look out into the world to see how they fit in. And then again, they can reflect back into how do I wanna fit into where I belong? And what, when they know, when I know my strengths, when I know what my interests are. I could be interested in something that may not be a strength.
So now I know what else to build for myself. Yes. Or if I have strengths that I want to then capitalize on, then I know what else to develop for myself. And when I, the, parents, you should have seen their faces because the way I've explained it to them, I asked 'em like, how did you pick your current career?
And, we all had this conversation, so
Cate Tolnai: that is fascinating. Yeah. And
Christina Baroldi:: so,
I said, and what influenced you? And again, we're saying like, we look to what we saw What our parents did, what our neighbors did, some of those influences. And it was interesting to hear the parents say some of them were good and some of them were bad.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah,
Christina Baroldi: absolutely. So then I showed them the picture of a pirate treasure map. And you know what it is like, it's literally you have to get on the ship and get yourself to that island where X marks the spot. It sets you up to, if you don't get on that ship, you're in the water with the sharks. And what happens.
And so and all the things that, with this traditional mindset of this is where success is not that pirate treasure map. Success is being, it has to be redefined. We don't use those types of maps anymore. You go to your phone, you put in where you wanna go, and you see immediately three different options.
that you can get there in different ways. Car. Oh, that's really cool. You see that? You can also add stops along the way, but here's the aha. Oh my God, I'm obsessed
Cate Tolnai: with this.
Christina Baroldi: Here's the aha. What happens if you get off course a little bit? What does that map do for you? It reroutes you. You
Crystal Meyer: what happens if you don't wanna pay for the toll road?
Cate Tolnai: It reroute you to a free,
Crystal Meyer: you get other options.
Cate Tolnai: Options. You get other options. You guys, I'm like, I'm in love with this metaphor. Oh my gosh.
Christina Baroldi: So the parents' minds went. Woo. They said, yes. How do we sign up for this? How do you bring this to our school? Oh my gosh. And, the principal said, this is our first informational gap.
And so I
Cate Tolnai: was like, that's awesome.
Christina Baroldi: but they all said what do you need us to do? And she said, share with parents. We'll have more meetings. Yeah. But that, that again, their minds went Yes.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah. Yeah. And so here's my next question, which I don't expect us to unpack, but like I'm just gonna say like where my head's going right now is how, what, kinda shifts within the teacher community of that ecosystem?
What needs to happen there to support this type of like mindset, mind shift, all of it. Have you even started, is that part of the conversations? Yeah,
Crystal Meyer: absolutely. I feel like. I'm not being critical when I say this, but I think typically when we give feedback and have conversations, there's a lot of critique built into how we engage as humans.
Sure. at any age.
I think the shift is really knowing each other, right? Knowing students, knowing yourself, knowing the parents, and really looking at career and a future with a career as coming from. A place of personalization. And coming from a place of strength.
as a teacher, like even think of something as simple as class jobs.
Like when we were kids, what they rotated. Say you're the line leader tomorrow, you get to go take the notes to the office. maybe think of it from a perspective of, okay, who's social.
Cate Tolnai: the
Crystal Meyer:: social domain in RIASEC is all about people who like to help. Who have this inclination to wanna help others.
It's not about talking, it's about. Wanting to improve other people's lives or Maybe that student feels joy when they get to do something from someone else.
Cate Tolnai: Oh my God, this is my daughter to a t. This is exactly who she is. Our,
Crystal Meyer: our
Cate Tolnai: little
Crystal Meyer:r: advocates out
Cate Tolnai: there in the world. Exactly. They're the ones that are gonna stay after and clean up, or they're gonna be, you can trust 'em to take a note to the front office.
I get it. So it's like using that framework To actually like strategically assign those jobs versus like Maybe just randomly like everybody doing it. Is that what you're suggesting?
Crystal Meyer:Yeah. It's essentially it's it's not about labeling the kid. Yeah. It's just about creating a different way to maybe access a student's strengths.
Uhhuh, if you're that kid who's conventional, would typically be the type of person that finds more joy in like autonomous work organizing. that's the main feature of, conventional. You're not gonna wanna go take that note to the office. You might wanna color code the note and organize the notes in the right spot so they're ready to be delivered, but you're not gonna get the most joy out of necessarily having that type of task.
So as a teacher, if I know that I wanna set my student up for success, yeah, I want my student to have opportunities and experiences that, Or they thrive and they feel good. Yeah. And they feel seen in their community of humans in the classroom.
Cate Tolnai: So then would you also then say to that teacher, go ahead and put the child that has the strength within the C category, give, go ahead and put them in a different category, but when you do that, maybe support them differently because they're going to be doing something that might not come naturally to them versus don't ever put them in there.
Crystal Meyer: Exactly. we're all a combination of all six domains. Yeah. In some way. we just lead with those, top three. But it's just something to think about totally. Like how do we bring out the best in our students? How can we encourage them to really, work with their own strengths versus, I'm not like that person.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah.
Crystal Meyer: maybe I should just be an attorney. It makes a lot of money,
Cate Tolnai: Yeah.
Crystal Meyer: Really coming from a more authentic place. and and that's just like a very basic example, the class rules. Yeah. Because it's so easy to align to, right? Yeah. but it creates a conversation. It creates a dialogue.
Cate Tolnai: Yeah.
Crystal Meyer: And reflection is everything, Totally. I got a sticker at CUE last year. It's a disco ball and I can't remember I got it from, but it says "Reflect now. Shine later.".
Cate Tolnai: Oh my God. That sounds like Ann Kozma who comes up on the show all the time.
Crystal Meyer:Oh yeah. She, I see her on LinkedIn all the time. She's, cute.
I just love it. Like it's a great looking sticker. But furthermore, it's true. The more introspection, the more reflection we do with ourselves, but also with our community of people learning alongside us. Yeah, like it's a beautiful thing.
Cate Tolnai: I imagine a world let's, do this.
Let's pre, let's, if I were to construct a real, like a, new learning environment, I would love that world to include an opportunity for a leader to give teachers that opportunity so that teachers could give the students that opportunity. But again, like that, like I said, like I learned long ago that my heart lives in teachers and, it's such a beautiful, it's such a beautiful.
Project mindset. Like everything, I feel like I'm walking away from this conversation, like a little sharper and a little bit, like all the things I'm gonna go look up and, I was not expecting that. I thought we were just gonna geek out on, each other. But this is now I'm like geek out on each other and smart things.
Christina Baroldi: I love it. This is, such exciting work because Yeah. again, more importantly that, kids can speak to the things. That they bring and that they, again, like Crystal already said, like that, that they can shine with because, I, talked about how, crystal mentioned that usually with older people, with adults, you can give 'em a test, but I, I share with the parents, you can't with kids because They don't know who they are just yet. Their interests, their passions change from week to week. And we've all seen littles from this week they're only gonna wear a red, or they're only going to eat this, or they're gonna, and how that everything switches and now they're having spaghetti with sauce.
When last week it was only butter noodles versus, or, to, to whatever it is. like now I do so much more. it really is that. That opportunity to expose and grow and then they start to find their path as they get older and know themselves more. But that only comes with time experience.
Yeah, the opportunity to process.
Cate Tolnai:: Yeah. I can't tell you how much I admire you both and how lucky you are to have each other. I'm sure you know that, but like we all know that teaching can be incredibly isolating. And when you have the. And you have the opportunity to connect with someone like this and just know that you're not alone.
wow, that's a, that's incredible. And so thank you for coming on and telling your story and sharing your projects and, you're both wonderful. I adore you both.
Crystal Meyer: Likewise, Cate, thank you so much
Christina Baroldi: for having
Crystal Meyer: us.
Christina Baroldi: Thank you. It was a pleasure. Yes. Thanks for this opportunity to share and connect because it's always good to connect with you.
Cate Tolnai: Always, Any excuse in the world. Until next time.