When students at De Soto High School hear the word IPS, their initial thought is complete agony. However, this year’s model has slightly changed and could be more beneficial to students. 

“IPS is around seven or eight years old,” counselor Lindsay Hothan said. “It’s required by the state for each district but it is up to the school to decide how to do/manage it.”

For those who don’t know what IPS [individual plan of study] is, it is a way for students to look beyond high school and see potentially what lies in store for them regarding a potential career path. 

“I think the whole goal of IPS is to give students the opportunity to find themselves,” Hothan said. “We use the personality test, the matchmaker, and the skills lab and tools like that to help students understand themselves as well as help them see what exists past high school.”

With COVID-19 still present and quarantine a real possibility,  it’s important for students to keep a clear head and make sure their mental health is good.

One big change to IPS is a whole new addition called Social Emotional Learning, or for short, SEL. SEL is integrated into IPS to give students a mental health check and see how they’re doing.

“SEL is designed to give students designated time to just focus on their mental health and to think about,” Hothan said. “It’s something that you have to deal with throughout your entire lifespan and we want to start focusing on it now.” 

DHS has a central area where everything is in one place and where students can really start looking into the future about potential career paths. 

That website is called Xello, which is an engaging set of tests, matchmakers, etc., to prepare students for decisions and looking past high school and college.

“It’s a more filtered and specific way for students to do research on career paths rather than just googling,” Hothan said.

Xello has been used for three years for IPS where it is more organized and you get to do your own research for a career. Compared to previous years, IPS has been a more relaxed and easygoing course of study instead of there being deadlines for certain topics regarding different IPS lessons. 

“We had a committee of counselors and teachers, developing meaningful lessons and ideas over the summer for students to grow and have it be more engaging and exciting,” Hothan said.