On Nov. 17 during PtE, the annual Career Expo was held in Main Street for all students to attend.
“I think [this] could benefit students because it gives them one place to look at all the career choices they have. They can also find options that they may have never heard of and it gives them a representative they can talk to and ask questions and get them answers,” Lauren Davidson (12) said.
The Career Fair was made up of a diverse group of representatives ready to help students with any questions they may have had regarding that specific career field. Nicky Rodriguez, a representative from the College of Court Reporting in Valparaiso, explained to students how a court reporter’s keyboard differed from a traditional keyboard and even told students to try typing on it themselves on the large screen which was set up on their table.
“I think at least by court reporting students can learn about an option that they don’t necessarily know about, and it’s something you don’t necessarily think about. I’m telling [students] all about the four different career fields in court reporting. You can work as an official court reporter in the courtroom, a freelance court reporter taking down depositions, a court reporter who works with the deaf and hard of hearing community, or you could be a broadcast captioner and write captions for the television,” Rodriguez said.
Along with the community representatives Lake Central’s own machine shop was a featured table. This class is offered to students and has the potential to get them involved with some of the community organizations and careers.
“I’m just letting [students] know that Lake Central offers a machine shop and showing them the projects we make in the shop and explaining the course. Career fairs are a great opportunity for students to see all the different opportunities that are offered in this area. Whether you realize it or not, Northwest Indiana produces 25 percent of our nation’s steel, so there’s a lot of jobs tied to the steel mills and refineries. Just look in the phone book under machine shops and you’ll see a bunch of different machine shops. It’s not just machining, and there’s all kinds of opportunities for students to get involved with that,” Mr. Terry Richardson, Vocational, said.
