By JOE LUETKEHANS – When it comes to looking toward the future, many high school students feel a sense of anxiety and uncertainty when thinking about post-education plans. Whether college, the military, or the workforce, making post-high school plans can become a jumbled mess of opportunity, knowledge, and excitement for the imminent onset of reality; however, this is not something that IHS students have to face alone.
On December 19th, Senior Leadership Seminar members Keegan Ryan and Giacco Gentile took charge and planned an IHS Career Fair with the help of Leadership coordinator and English teacher Devon Duffy to bring students a taste of what opportunities the future could hold for them after high school.
Held in the new gym during 9th and 10th periods, the Career Fair brought in presenters from various higher-learning institutions, companies, and organizations in the area to give students new information regarding their post-education options. More than twenty-seven careers were represented at the fair. Several departments from IUP, such as Nursing, Foreign Language, Psychology, and Business sent representatives to share their fields with students and show them the career pathways that a college education could create.
Gentile, who was instrumental in the planning of the event, hoped that students would be able to find new career paths that would aid them in their future endeavors stating, “We thought it would be important for IHS students because in school there’s a lot of talk about how to get into college. There’s even a college fair students go to at IUP, but we felt that there wasn’t enough being said concerning possibilities for getting into a career with that college education.”
The idea was born from a Leadership brainstorming session in which members were to come up with new ideas for how to take initiative in the school and have an impact on students. Gentile adds, “…the Career Fair was an idea that was pitched to try to get younger students more knowledge about what they want to do after high school or college.”
Aside from the prospect of a post-secondary education, the fair also offered information for other future commitments, such as ROTC and the US Military. Representatives from these organizations came to IHS to show students what they could achieve serving their country, either before, after, or during their college education.
Senior student Keegan Ryan, who planned the event in tandem with Gentile, also hoped that the Career Fair would be able to shine a light on the possibilities the future could bring and promote excitement towards career planning. “We organized this with [IHS Principal] Mr. [Wade] McElheny to help students build on their strengths and see what they could do with them. We were trying to give students exposure to a career they can pursue with those interests and strengths. Students hopefully now have an idea of what they want to pursue.”
Sophomore Jack Finegan was appreciative of the information he took away from the event. “It was nice just to be able to explore the different options that were available to people… it was cool to have a convenient way to see all of my options for careers and futures.” Finegan was one of hundreds of students who attended the event, which had a heavily prioritized goal of creating a similar sentiment in all who were able to attend.
In hopes that the Career Fair will become a recurring event at IHS, Senior Leadership Seminar and its representatives will continue making moves to promote knowledge and preparedness among the impressionable minds at IHS. Events such as this can be valuable to the student body, especially to those who feel lost in their search for enriching post-education plans.
{Photo by Dylan Latore}
Photo Caption: Senior Cassie Kuzneski explored many of the offerings at the recent Leadership Seminar Career Fair
