I completely agree with the idea that we need to demonstrate the connection between what we are teaching and the students' future careers. As a math teacher, it is easy to fall into a flow of just teaching math, but students really do appreciate understanding how they will use the math later. The challenge is that some of the math is in the curriculum to allow them to continue with their studies if they choose to go to a traditional university and take algebra 1 so it does not have a career application beyond "you might need this if...". I have to continue to emphasize the actual connections and hope that is enough to keep motivation up.