Lincoln-Way puts focus on alt career options
Job fair opens students’ eyes to possibilities of trades
The gymnasium at Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox was home Thursday to handson jackhammering and bricklaying demonstrations as well as an arcade-style video program that simulates the experience of operating heavy machinery and other elements promoting careers in the trades and other fields that don’t involve traditional college degrees.
The four-hour career fair featured about 20 paraprofessional and trade organizations and nearly 350 juniors and seniors from the district’s three campuses in NewLenox and Frankfort.
Aimee Feehery, the district’s director of instruction who oversawthe event, said it targeted students who weren’t necessarily interested in careers requiring a four-year degree or who might be concerned about student loans. Represented along with constructionoriented trades were New Lenox police and fire, Joliet Junior College, a local auto dealership and technical specialists from two companies.
While a message from Superintendent Scott Tingley on the district’s website states 85 percent of graduating seniors enroll in a twoto four-year college within 16 months, Feehery said moreandmore studentsand families in the district are interested in exploring options “with no college debt.”
At a booth operated by LiUNA Chicagoland Laborers’ District Council Training, RichSchumannsaid the cost factor of a university education is a good reason to go into a trade.
Schumann, one of two LiUNA Chicagoland Labor- ers’ District Council Training representatives attending the event, said 18 is the entry age for apprentices, “but we’re getting people who are 26. They’ve finished college, can’t find a good job and owe money on their college loans.”
A few yards away at the IBEW Local 176 table, instructor Lance Mahoney told of students graduating from four-year institutions who return home to find neighbors employed in trades who own their own homes and “have a bass boat in the driveway.”
But Mahoney was quick to add a four-year degree offers other benefits.
“It’s not a bad thing,” he said. “It’s just a different path.”
Dennis O’Donnell, in charge of one of Joliet Junior College’s four booths, said the career fair was “awesome.”
“It gives the students the opportunity to see what else is out there,” he said. “If they’re not exposed to these other good-paying jobs, how elsewould they know?”
O’DonnellsaidJolietJunior College offers several approaches to entering a paraprofession or trade. Coursework at the college can also boost an applicant’s chance of being accepted into an apprenticeship program, he said. O’Donnell, a NewLenox resident, said he also sees himself as a sort of ambassador for several western Will County companies that hire fromJJC.
Lincoln-WayCentral senior Lauren Gordon, one of a dozen students crowding around the New Lenox Police Department table, said she’dmadeit her first stop at the fair because she’s interested in law enforcement. But her interest goes beyond being a patrol officer to include “detective, forensics — that kind of stuff,” she said.
Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter.