Edison hosts career fair, ‘Get a Life’ program
From left, William Vest, funeral director of Vaughan Kimes Funeral Home & Crematory, helps guide eighth-grade students Brayden Gibson and Zaydin Scott through financial calculations during the 'Get a Life' financial literacy event at Edison Middle School Wednesday morning. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
Edison Middle School student Alexas Forman does calculations for gas money during the 'Get a Life' financial literacy simualtion Wednesday morning. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
From left, Cayden Dennewitz and Brody Maston pilot robots brought by technical center students to a career fair at Edison Middle School Wednesday. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
From left, Jen Allman, owner of SIPS Coffee, chats with Edison Middle School students Ari Tingler and Hadley Hill during a career fair Wednesday. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
MacKenzie Ullman, representing the Williamstown branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, gives a presentation to Edison Middle School students Wednesday morning. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
Edison Middle School student Alyssa Wilson, left, gets a hands on physical therapy demonstration from Nikki McGinnis, a physical therapist with First Settlement Physical Therapy. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
From left, William Vest, funeral director of Vaughan Kimes Funeral Home & Crematory, helps guide eighth-grade students Brayden Gibson and Zaydin Scott through financial calculations during the 'Get a Life' financial literacy event at Edison Middle School Wednesday morning. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
Edison Middle School student Alexas Forman does calculations for gas money during the 'Get a Life' financial literacy simualtion Wednesday morning. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
From left, Cayden Dennewitz and Brody Maston pilot robots brought by technical center students to a career fair at Edison Middle School Wednesday. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
From left, Jen Allman, owner of SIPS Coffee, chats with Edison Middle School students Ari Tingler and Hadley Hill during a career fair Wednesday. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
MacKenzie Ullman, representing the Williamstown branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, gives a presentation to Edison Middle School students Wednesday morning. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
Edison Middle School student Alyssa Wilson, left, gets a hands on physical therapy demonstration from Nikki McGinnis, a physical therapist with First Settlement Physical Therapy. (Photo by Gwen Sour)
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PARKERSBURG -- Edison Middle School students explored potential careers and the financial responsibilities of adulthood during a career fair paired with the West Virginia State Treasurer's Office's Get a Life program.
Principal Janet Sears said the school had participated in Get a Life before but added the career fair this year. Half the students took part in the financial education program while the other half attended the fair. Sears said the pairing helped students consider the differences between entering the workforce with little training after high school and pursuing college, trade school or other education.
According to the state treasurer's website, Get a Life is a budget simulation in which students take on adult roles with full-time jobs and monthly expenses. They visit stations to make decisions about housing, transportation, food and other purchases, with community volunteers helping to guide them.
The program also gives students a chance to simulate completing college or trade school, then see how higher earnings affect their monthly budgets. The treasurer's office says the activity teaches budgeting, problem-solving and the difference between needs and wants.
School counselor Andrea Moore organized the career fair, which she said brought together 30 speakers, including 11 students representing career and technical education programs.
Moore began recruiting presenters through a Facebook post asking friends for help, then contacted people directly to invite them to participate.
"People were super receptive to it," she said.
Student presenters from the Caperton Center and Wood County Technical Center represented carpentry, medical skills, medical assisting, computer-aided design and drafting, computer programming, criminal justice, emergency medical services and firefighting, cosmetology, pre-engineering, the ProStart culinary program, and collision repair. Parkersburg South High School's ROTC program also participated.
Community participants included a physical therapist, a real estate agent, a radiology technician, a fisheries biologist, the owner of SIPS Coffee and a social worker focused on foster care and adoption as well as professionals in public relations and grant writing, a laboratory technician, a phlebotomist, an event planner and representatives of nursing and pharmaceuticals. United Bank and the Army National Guard participated, along with a lawyer, a pilot and flight instructor from Rivertown Aviation, a Parkersburg News and Sentinel editor and a police officer.
Before the fair, students completed an interest inventory to help school staff identify careers they might want to explore. Sears said students were matched with three careers based on their interests and could choose two others, giving each student five stations to visit.
Moore provided presenters with a guide covering their daily responsibilities, education and training, career changes, and the advantages and challenges of their work.
"What's the best part of your job? What's the worst part of your job? What did you do to get here?" Moore said, describing some of the questions presenters were encouraged to address.
Students received a "passport" to guide their conversations and help them record what they learned. Prompts asked them to identify something surprising about a job, the tools workers used, the education required and what a typical day involved.
Moore said students were beginning to think about high school and future careers, and some were discovering jobs they had not known existed.
"They're asking a lot of questions," she said.
Sears said students appeared focused on the presentations.
"They're very tuned in," she said.