Students learning at Clintonville eighth grade career fair, April 26, 2023. PC: Fox 11 Online
CLINTONVILLE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — More than a thousand eighth grade students from 19 different middle schools had the chance to learn more about what their future could look like on Wednesday.
The Clintonville School District partnered with a local college, chambers, and businesses to hold a career fair at the high school.
“Opens my eyes up to different career opportunities,” says a Hortonville Middle School Student, Donovan Johnson.
Although these students have just over four years left in school, organizers say career exposure at this age is important.
“Because they don’t know what they want to do, so this just gives them a spectrum of all the things they could do,” says Fox Valley Technical College Regional Center Manager, Kim Manteuffel.
Some of the careers explored Wednesday included education, architecture, public safety, business, trades, healthcare, and more.
“They get to find out first hand what steps they need to do to get to their dream job and career of interest someday,” says Bonduel Middle School Counselor, Laura Warning.
Manteuffel says this also helps in getting ready for high school.
“Again they have those career paths, so if there are certain classes they can take in high school that they can transfer on, they can save money and time in college,” says Manteuffel.
Eighth graders walking around Wednesday’s career fair say after stopping at some tables and talking to professionals, it opened their eyes to careers they never thought they’d be interested in.
“I guess construction interested me a lot because I didn’t realize how many women also work in there; because I thought it was more men based,” says a Hortonville Middle School Student, Ella Favry.
For some, this solidified what they already knew they wanted to do.
“Currently I’m interested in going into the Military for a little bit, then getting out and having my own job,” says a Bonduel Middle School student, Isaac Seefeldt.
“I would say the Military…I would say Air Force,” says a St Paul Lutheran student, Ajay Heller.
Warning says this also makes the eighth graders take high school more seriously.
“Them being able to talk first hand to these people and hear from them I think they take it a little bit more seriously then from those of us at school and at home all the time,” says Warning.
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