Area eighth graders take part in inaugural Seguin Area Youth Career Expo
(Seguin) — It’s never too early to begin thinking about your future. That was the vision behind Wednesday’s first ever Seguin Area Youth Career Expo at the Seguin Coliseum. Over 800 eighth graders from Seguin, Navarro and Marion ISD spent much of their school day experiencing the countless ways in which they could spend their future.
The showcase of careers was all part for a collaborative effort among the school districts and the Seguin Economic Development Corporation.
Ashlynn Read of the Seguin EDC, says up until now, all workforce development events hosted by the SEDC have been focused at the high school level. She says this week, it was all about introducing industries and careers to a younger generation.
“We turned our focus to eighth grade because we do a lot of events with the high school students but when you go down the eighth grade line, you kind of establish that talent pipeline to kind of be really solid for years to come. Not only to mention these eighth graders don’t know what they don’t know about careers and so getting into high school, this is a really good time right now in the spring, earlly spring, before they actually pick their classes, to get them exposed to what are the indiustries in our region and also what is career and techncial education? A lot of them don’t know that so we decided let’s shift our focus to the eighth grade students — focus on them, kind of get them engaged and build that talent pipeline down the line of age,” said Read.
In fact because of the younger group of students, Read says this particular career expo was designed to be interactive as well as fun.
“Shifting the focus to the younger generation, we asked our exhiibitors to really bring something loud, big — have them do some hands on tricks with their products, get them exposed to this is the day in the life of what I do here — whether that be construction, whether that be healthcare or whether that be small business. We have a small business here so just asking them to bring tangible items that get them interacting and moving and also targeting your conversation with them as well — not really dropping a whole of information load on them but saying hey, doesn’t this look fun? Come and interact with me for this industry,” said Read.
Among those implementing the idea was Rick Bough, Seguin ISD career and technical education director.
“Coming from Hays CISD, this is something that we did there and I really wanted to see it happen here. Ashley Tovar and the Seguin Economic Development Corporation are great partners. They came in and thought this was a great idea as well. We ran with it and it really is an opportunity for our eighth graders to learn about the careers and we have not only the business and industry partners here but the teachers that teach in those career paths are here so the students can see okay, if this is what I want to do, these are the courses I need to take. The state of Texas has become much more prescribed in wanting students in a pathway all four years of high school and so this is a chance for us to kind of get a first glimpse for the eighth graders of what that pathway looks like,” said Bough.
Bough says in the Seguin ISD, students are required to choose their career pathways the semester before their freshman year. He says this expo provides hands on career exposure at a critical point in their academic careers. He says the hope is to have students inspired by the diversity of careers available in thier own back yard.
“There is no need to leave Seguin. If you look at manufactruring, Seguin has more manufacutring per capita than any city in the state of Texas and when you look at companies like United Alloy just came here, we have Caterpillar and what they are doing with robotics — we have a number of manufacuturers here in town. Vitesco is here in town. We also have GRMC, a tremendous asset to the community in the medical field. You look at GVEC and the cooperative and what they do. They are out here today. Any career that a student wants to go into, there’s an opportunity in Seguin to at least get a foot hold into that career and we try to partner with all of those companies. Lone Star Home Solutions is here. They’ve put us together with Habitat for Humanity and we are actually building walls in our construction program for Habitat for Humanity builds and so our students are not only leanring about their career but they are learning about giving back and that’s really important,” said Bough.
Desribing the full day event as phenomenal was Susan Thetford, Marion ISD’s director of sports services.
Thetford says the inaugural career expo for eighth graders is also a signficiant benefit for her students.
“I think it’s critical because at least in Marion, we offer career exploration in the seventh grade so they are beginning to explore what options might be available to them upon graduation whether they go straight into post secondary education or they go into the workforce. I think it’s critical we expose them early even down to the elementary level. However this particular expo, once they kind of get that idea in their head, they also can select coursework at the end of thier eighth grade year that leads them to high school. So, I definitley think this is a critical piece for all students to be able to participate in something like this. I’m personally very excited we are able to offer that this year,” said Thetford.
Like the adults, the students also got to see the benefits for such an off campus experience. Among those was Marion eighth grader Ellie Shelton.
“There’s many different opportuntiies that you can go into and like being here having so many options, it can widen your mind and offer something that you already had your mind set on but you can go to other options,” said Shelton.
Hopefully by now, students have talked about the youth career expo with their families. Thetford says it not, then tonight might just be the perfect time.
“I also think it’s important for parents to engage in that conseversattion after this event to carry it further and hopefully the studnets are visiting these booths and really getting that rich information. I know at Marion, we help them with questions to generate. We say okay, this is what you ask these professionals so that you can engage in that conversation and carry that convseration home. We also sent home information to parents as well to let them know what this event was so taht they can also ask additional questions to their students this evening,” said Thetford.
Over 30 local employers across the area participated in the event. The Seguin Youth Career Expo was also made possible thanks to the San Antonio Manufacturers Association (SAMA) — one of the largest and most active manufacturing associations in the state of Texas.
