High School Coordinates Career Fair
ANDERSON — McDonald County High School hosted its 17th annual career fair on Nov. 3 with the help of teachers and students in the business department.
Christine Ellis, a marketing and business teacher at MCHS, helped coordinate the career fair alongside several of her DECA students. Ellis said the purpose of the career fair is to showcase different jobs and college opportunities for sophomores, juniors and seniors at the high school.
“It’s an event that gives students and employers the chance to meet one another and establish professional relationships and discuss potential job or internship opportunities,” Ellis said.
Ellis said one of the priorities for event organizers hosting the career fair is to reflect a multitude of different jobs so students have an idea of what is available for them post-graduation.
“When we think about doing the career fair, we try to get every aspect of every job from hairstylist to welder to someone who would be a manager at a Walmart or an IT person,” Ellis said. “So, we try to hit to whole gamut and spectrum of what jobs are out there for them.”
Ellis said she hopes students visiting the fair, as well as business students helping coordinate the fair, will work on their networking skills and speak with employers that interest them.
Madison Anderson, a sophomore DECA student at MCHS, was in charge of helping vendors and businesses find where they were going as they arrived at MCHS.
“I showed people where they were going and made sure to have a positive attitude about it,” Anderson said. “We would walk around and make sure that everyone was setting up fine. I would also go to people who didn’t know what they wanted to do (as far as career choices) and help them find a table
to talk to.”
Anderson said her goal in helping with the career fair was to make sure booths and students felt welcome and comfortable during the event. Anderson said volunteering for the event helped her work on her working skills and hospitality skills, as well as maintaining a positive attitude.
Anderson, who was also able to visit vendors that she was interested in working for post-graduation, said she had a fun time volunteering at the event and plans to volunteer through the DECA club again next year.
Della Demartini, a sophomore DECA student at MCHS, helped vendors and employers at the career fair bring equipment into the high school gymnasium. Demartini said she was able to take advantage of certain skills at the fair that she’d learned in her business classes.
“I used respect and kindness as I was helping people at the career fair,” Demartini said.
Demartini said she learned about career options she wasn’t familiar with at the fair and was able to further explore career options she was interested in while assisting vendors throughout the event.
“I feel like I learned a lot helping with the career fair,” Demartini said. “Especially about the field I want to go into. And I love how they had so many different options for everybody’s different interests.”
Demartini said she learned a lot about organizing events while volunteering with the DECA students and plans on volunteering to assist with the fair throughout the rest of her high school career.
“It was really successful,” Ellis said. “Just the gamut that we have of various people that come is the highlight. We didn’t have anything overlapping and we try to provide the best variety of every job that they can imagine.”