Mayfield Central School District 8th graders recently attended Career Con hosted by HFM BOCES, SUNY FMCC and The Fulton-Montgomery Regional Chamber of Commerce. The day-long, interactive event featured 60 local businesses and gave students the opportunity to have hands-on demonstrations and discuss the many different career opportunities available.
“Our goal is to create awareness for students at an earlier age of the careers available right here in our region,” said HFM Career and Technical Education (CTE) Principal Michael DiMezza. “We hope that Career Con will help influence their education choices and retain their talents to fill local jobs that can spur economic growth in our communities.”
Early career exploration opportunities like this are exactly what Mayfield is looking for. School counselors, Taylor VanSlyke and Angeline Conte, know that reaching students early on better prepares them to make informed choices about their future.
“Experiences like this really give our students great exposure,” said VanSlyke. “By exploring outside of the classroom at an early age, students are able to more strategically choose their high school classes to align with their interests.”
Events like Career Con help build on practices already in place in Mayfield. VanSlyke and Conte regularly visit classrooms that focus on career exploration and most recently established a 6-week program with 7th grade students that explores topics such as personality inventory, learning styles and school subjects at work. During this time students are required to present on a specific career of their choice, and explain why and how it relates to what they learned about themselves and their interests during the program.
“It was really interesting to see the students’ engage in this kind of self-assessment and then see what career they chose to present on,” said VanSlyke.
By exploring the career options early on, students not only cultivate their specific interests, but gain a better understanding of the relevance of what they’re learning in school and how it relates to their future careers.
Savannah DeGroat was particularly excited about the day and liked that it got her thinking about careers she hadn’t previously considered.
“I’ve been interested in going into cosmetology,” said DeGroat. “But I really enjoyed hearing about the nursing field. I like helping people and it was fun to learn how to perform CPR.”
Aurora Horne commented on how many different jobs there are in each field that many don’t even think about.
“I really liked learning about the variety of options available in the healthcare field, from social work to home health care,” said Horne. “It really opened me up to all there is out there.”
Eighth Grade Career Con is set to be an annual event that helps connect students with area businesses and lays the groundwork successful career choices. Any business looking to get involved should contact HFM BOCES at 518-736-4681.