At career fair, students get a taste of job fields

Staff report

hermitage, pa.

The inaugural Mercer County 8th Grade Career Fair last month hosted students from several area junior high and middle schools.

The students came from Farrell, Greenville, Hickory, Jamestown, Keystone, Reynolds, Sharon and Sharpsville. The career fair, co-sponsored by Laurel Technical Institute and the Shenango Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Education Committee, took place at the Normandy Banquet Center. Greenville, Mercer and Grove City chambers of commerce also provided support.

The career fair, part of an initiative by LTI and the Shenango Valley Chamber to grow career awareness and promote education and training after high school among area youth, highlighted 11 “career clusters,” and engaged area professionals to represent each cluster.

The clusters included agriculture, building trades, business, design/communications/art, education, health, hospitality, the armed forces, science and technology, social sciences and transportation. Representatives from these clusters spoke with students about the education and skills required to work in each field, positives and negatives about their careers and why they chose their professions. They also answered questions posed by the students.

“Almost 850 students attended this year’s career fair, and we had representatives from about 70 occupations offering information about what they do for a living. The kids were really interested and focused on exploring the professions that were represented and getting good information about career options,” said Doug Decker, director of LTI’s Sharon Campus. “Naturally, we don’t expect these kids to decide right now what they want to do, but it’s never too early to plant that thought — and events like this can sometimes spark a genuine interest.”

Jessica Wojtalik, an area social worker, said the students “… were very impressive today. Many of them knew what they wanted to do for their careers and asked great questions.”

Wilson Brown, a clinical psychology doctoral candidate from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said, “The career fair provided an excellent community outreach opportunity for us as professionals to introduce the young minds of the Shenango Valley to our respective career fields.”

Decker and Debbie Anderson, LTI’s high school representative, with cooperation from the education committee and members of the Chamber, coordinated the event.

Preparations included finding representatives for different professions, developing their displays, visiting schools to talk with students about careers, scheduling schools on the day of the event and finding a venue.