Skyping with Experts: Ingrid Stabb and Career Types

An important component that I wanted to include in my Entrepreneurship Unit was self exploration because part of being a successful entrepreneur is knowing your strengths and maximizing on these. When I decide to teach a concept like this, my first instinct is to find materials used and designed by professionals in a specific field. As a result, I chose to have my students take The Enneagram Quiz developed by Ingrid Stabb and Elizabeth Wagele in The Career Within You. This quiz centers on an individual’s strengths and outlines 9 EnneaTypes (career types) that best suit certain personality types. As my students took this quiz, I had them think of examples from their own lives. Next, I had them read about each career type and determine whether their “type” was accurate for them. All of my students agreed with the descriptions and even cited examples in their lives that reflected each type.


As a culminating activity, I was very pleased to have Ingrid Stabb as our guest speaker for my fourth grade class. Mrs. Stabb began her chat with a presentation on each type and gave examples of celebrities and historical figures who represented each type. She also asked students to share their type and any experiences that illustrated their type. Students enjoyed sharing their stories and I even noticed some students referring back to their quiz during the presentation. A final thought that Mrs. Stabb offered was telling students that it was important for them, their parents, and even their teachers to know their types because these help in identifying how they think and work best.

Even more exciting was the fact that this experience was featured on the examiner.com. To see the full article, click here.