Stories from the Field: Kealakehe Intermediate School’s career fair
We had a great time tabling at the Kealakehe Intermediate School career exploration fair last Friday, March 10th. It was our second year sharing about careers in running nonprofit programming as a career. While we couldn’t keep track of how many students visited our booth, we think it was a wonderful way for the school’s over 600 students to spend their last day before Spring Break!
Students talk to volunteer career fair presenters. Faces are covered to protect anonymity.
The school gave students bingo sheets with conversation starter prompts to encourage them to ask questions for a prize drawing. It was a very effective idea!
We talked to students about working in any kind of nonprofit and asked about what they would be interested in working on. Many students expressed genuine interest in helping their community.
The most popular concerns were cleaning up the local environment and helping the homeless. Although we couldn’t talk to every student, we asked booth visitors to write down ideas for what community projects they would do, if they could do anything. Some students wrote down many, many ideas! Mahalo to each and every one of them. We look forward to reading everything from the Good Ideas” jar and sharing them out. Stay tuned!
It is so important to expose kids to potential career pathways early. Especially with the multitude of new career and technical education pathways students have to choose from, it’s especially beneficial for them to learn their options before high school. That’s why we are so grateful to the school and volunteers for making the event a success.
Great job to the school staff, including: Student Activities Coordinator Ronda Barker, Parent Community Networking Coordinator Randal Smith, the facilities crew, administration, and teachers. We also owe a lot of thanks to the student leaders that helped with setup, cleanup, and attending to presenters. And of course all the businesses and agencies that volunteered their time to share their careers with students.
Students try out hair styling; cosmetology was a very popular booth! Faces are covered to protect anonymity.
Feeling inspired to help share your business with students? Talk to your local schools or go to https://climbhi.org/portals/ to sign up for career exploration events like these. ClimbHI Bridge lets you connect with schools and receive invitations to connect students to real-world opportunities.
