The Banzai College and Careers Life Skills Workbook provides hands-on, unplugged activities designed to prepare high school students for life after graduation—whether they plan to attend college, enter trade school, start a career, or live independently.
Note: Sponsored teachers can order free printed class sets via the Workbooks tab. If your school is not yet sponsored, you can download printable PDFs and answer keys from Library > Printables.
Activities in the College and Careers Life Skills Workbook
What's Next for Me?: Students assess their academic strengths, interpersonal skills, and personal interests, envision their personal life and definition of success 10 years in the future, and explore immediate post-high school pathways—such as college, trade school, full-time employment, military service, entrepreneurship, or a gap year. They map out what their first year on that path will look like, consider alternative backup plans, and outline three actionable first steps to take during the current school year.
Practicing Soft Skills: Students explore essential professional traits across communication, problem-solving, self-management, leadership, and workplace habits, defining soft skills and contrasting them with learned technical hard skills. They evaluate three personal soft skills they currently excel at, identify three skills they need to improve along with concrete strategies for growth, and reflect on soft skills modeled by individuals they admire.
Time Management: Students audit how they spend a typical weekday across school, studying, social media/gaming, extracurriculars, sleep, and downtime. They then define and differentiate between "Time Values" (purposeful activities that support health, goals, and personal growth) and "Time Wasters" (unintentional distractions that drain focus and energy), creating an actionable plan to prioritize meaningful habits and reduce time wasters.
College Prep: Students master post-secondary terminology by matching essential terms to their definitions, including syllabus, credits, major, minor, prerequisites, meal plans, registrar, bursar, financial aid, and FAFSA. They research a higher-education or vocational institution's website to evaluate tuition and cost of attendance, campus support services, and extracurricular activities, concluding with an analysis of common transition challenges such as living with roommates, studying effectively, and managing homesickness.
Resume Builder: Students prepare all components needed for a professional resume, including contact details, a targeted summary statement, work or volunteer experience, academic history and GPA, technical skills and certifications, and professional references.
Networking (Who You Know Matters): Students map out their current network of support—including teachers, family, coaches, bosses, and mentors—and analyze what they learn from each relationship. They also identify future contacts they want to connect with and explore practical ways to build and maintain professional relationships after high school.
Interview Prep: Students formulate concise answers to common interview questions, including introducing themselves, sharing a key strength, describing teamwork experiences, discussing an area for improvement, and handling stress. They also create a personal interview game plan covering attire, questions to ask the interviewer, and strategies for managing nerves.
Are You Ready to Move Out?: Students complete an independent living checklist to evaluate their proficiency in cooking, cleaning, laundry, budgeting, and managing bank accounts. They analyze an excerpt from a residential lease agreement to identify rental costs, security deposits, lease terms, and tenant vs. landlord maintenance responsibilities, brainstorm questions to ask a potential landlord, and outline healthy roommate expectations covering chores, visitors, quiet hours, and shared groceries.