Middle school students preview future careers
Article By: Agnes Hina
From March 14-15, the University of North Georgia (UNG) hosted the sixth annual Middle School Career Path Fair, which exposed more the 1,700 Hall County and Gainesville City middle school students to over 60 local businesses representing 12 career paths.
"Knowing that our students can't dream about what they have never seen, we put a lot of effort into building our Middle School Career Path Fair for students to meet people in at least four different career fields and learn about the jobs," Natalie Smith, Gainesville City School System assistant director for federal programs, said. "Of course we need teachers, firefighters, and doctors, but we also need electricians, IT technicians, researchers, and a host of other great jobs."
Each student was able to learn about companies from different career paths. The paths presented were agriculture and natural resources, business management and administration, communications, computer science, construction and architecture, education and training, health science, hospitality and tourism, human services, law and government, manufacturing and STEM, and transportation and logistics.
Some of the businesses present included Lawson Air & Plumbing, United Way of Hall County and the Northeast Georgia Health System, which participated on both days.
Registered nurses Amy Poole and Christina Whitney taught the students hands-only CPR.
Poole, a workforce development coordinator, has been to this event before and was glad to share the training.
"It improves the chances of survival rates to as much as 30% total. We also answer questions and express to them how our health care system works like a little city with many different roles," Poole said.
Whitney, who had something similar in high school, shared that this could have been helpful for her and her peers if presented sooner since they weren't exposed to this until their junior and senior years.
Cherokee Bluff eighth-grader Norah Cornett loves volleyball and basketball but learned more about some new interests for her. Cornett's parents are physical therapists, and while she has always thought about fields in health care, she is curious about others and how they could impact her siblings.
"I've always thought about nursing, because my family is in health care. I'm interested to hear about business, though," Cornett said. "I have three sisters, and I feel like my two younger sisters should come here too to get the experience. I could see myself at UNG now. "
This event also took place at Brenau University and Lanier Technical College, as co-sponsors of the career fair.
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