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Students get peek at working world

Clarissa Kell | Daily Press Joshua Webber, a fifth grader at Jones Elementary School, asks Community Service Trooper Dale Hongisto questions during a career fair in the innovation lab at Jones Elementary School Thursday. The career fair was a part of the school’s Career Exploration Week.

GLADSTONE — Jan. 27 through 31 was designated Career Exploration Week at Jones Elementary School. As a part of Career Exploration Week, the school held a career fair for fifth graders Thursday afternoon.

According to Principal Kristina Hansen, Michigan passed legislation in 2018 requiring schools to take a more active role in assisting students as they prepare for their future education and career.

“Even though the state has this expectation that schools are going to cover it, the expectation is just surface level — just general awareness,” Hansen said. “We wanted to take it to the next level and really give students the opportunity to see lots of different careers. And to also have them consider, maybe not necessarily just college-bound tracks, but also opportunities in the trades, or the military (or) law enforcement. Just to give them different experiences and different ideas because maybe they’re not aware of their future career.”

This week, the school offered many different activities to provide the students with information about the importance of education, going to college or other post-high school training, and pursuing careers that might be unfamiliar to them.

Hansen explained the goal of the event isn’t for students to commit to a career path.

“Our goal isn’t necessarily to get kids to commit to their long-term plan this week, it’s just to plant the seed about thinking about their future and exploring different opportunities that are available to them,” she said.

Monday was the day everything kicked off at the school with an assembly for all third through fifth grade students.

At the assembly, goals for the week were established and students took the “YES to SUCCESS Pledge.”

In the “YES to SUCCESS Pledge,” students swore to know they are responsible for their own success, believe in themselves and never give up trying to make their dreams come true, work hard to earn good grades, graduate from high school, make a plan for their future after high school, and say yes to success.

Tuesday was “college/trades dress-up day,” where students wore college apparel or dressed up as a worker in the trades or military.

Wednesday held different activities for different age groups. Third and fourth graders had a career fair while fifth graders were taught resume writing skills.

On Thursday, fifth graders were provided the afternoon to ask questions to people employed in a wide-range of industries in the innovation lab.

Over the course of Wednesday and Thursday, well over 40 different local professionals attended one or both career fairs to share their experiences, training, and advice about selecting a career, Hansen said.

She added students interviewed at least three professionals to get ideas for a potential future career.

Professionals at the career fair ranged from photographers and nurses to police officers and line workers.

Andrew Karl, a fifth grader, said Career Exploration Week, including the career fair, was beneficial for the other kids not sure on what they want to do when they’re older.

“I just feel that overall, that this is needed for a lot of other people that might have problems choosing a job,” he said.

Karl didn’t need any help with knowing what he wants to do post school. He explained he wants to be a paleontologist.

“It’s someone who finds dinosaur fossils and they could help out the world in a sense,” Karl said.

Joshua Webber, a fifth grader at Jones, thought the event was an interesting way for kids to learn about different careers.

“I think it’s really fun and educational for kids because they’re pretty much learning about different jobs and how they work and run,” he said.

According to Webber, before Thursday’s career fair he felt he wanted to be either a lawyer or a veterinarian, but the event opened up more career paths he hadn’t considered.

Today, students are to dress-up in the apparel worn in a profession they would like to have someday.

Webber said he planned to dress-up as a detective, noting he felt the job is simple to dress-up as and also sounds interesting.

Throughout the week, students were able to participate in other career exploration activities.

Hansen said some of the other career exploration activities presented to kids were a display of career books in the library, videos on careers, a visual display of career paths on a wall within the school, and information on career pathways in the morning announcements.

Hansen and teachers put up displays on their educational backgrounds outside their doors to show students the paths they took to get to their careers in education, as well.

“Just to raise that level of awareness of what different careers and trade opportunities are out there,” she said.

Career Exploration Week never took place before this year, however, Hansen said it will return because it was extremely successful and impacted students.

“Based on what we’ve seen and feedback from students and staff, it is definitely something that we will do again,” she said.

According to Hansen, she and other teachers at the school are amazed at the students’ reaction.

“I think it’s generating some conversations amongst the students and between students and staff members that maybe wouldn’t have happened without these activities happening,” she said.

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