Copyright Chicago Tribune
High school freshmen in the Aurora area got a chance to learn about future career options recently during an event at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove. Beginning at 8:30 a.m. Friday, ninth-grade students from East Aurora, West Aurora, Batavia and Kaneland high schools visited the Waubonsee campus as the city of Aurora and the Valley Education for Employment System offered the Illuminate Career Pathways expo, giving participants the chance to visit with over 150 local industry partners and experience hands-on activities connected to possible careers, event organizers said. The first-ever event at the college allowed students who came in shifts to get a head start on what they may be interested in as far as a career choice. Harlow Weisman of Batavia High School joined hundreds of other high school freshmen at the event. “I want to look at the medical field stuff, like being a nurse,” she said. “I think it’s good to start getting some information with our career path. Everyone can see what they want to do and get ideas about the different things out there. “In terms of a medical career, I’m interested in finding out more about it,” Weisman said. Close to 1,000 students were expected to participate in the event. Nicole Mullins, chief community services officer for the city of Aurora, said the event “was designed as a career exploration fair where kids can come and really learn what different careers are really about.” “Sometimes a lot of these festivals are just having booths set up answering questions but this is meant to be very interactive, very hands-on and a way for people not to just find what career path they want to have, but also weed out what they might be on the fence about,” she said. Mullins said it is important for young people to begin thinking about their future careers in the work world as early as possible. Career groups represented at the event Friday included agriculture, natural resources, finance, business, information technology, communications, the arts and more. Amanda Hjelm, a counselor at Batavia High School, was on hand at the event and said it “was a good way for our kids to start some exploration and to start getting some ideas about what careers are available and interesting to them.” “This helps students despite the uncertainty of the job market,” she said. “We always encourage students to try out what’s interesting to them in high school.” Anthony Navarrete of Aurora visited the Aurora Police Department booth at the event and admitted that for him, “I still don’t really know what I want to do yet.” “I think this event is kind of interesting,” he said. “I know this will help us choose classes. I don’t think it’s too early to have something like this because, now, during this time, you can try and see if you can get into stuff that kind of relates and gives you a little bit of hands-on experience and go into something at an early age.” He said that planning for your future career is important. “It nice to know something about a career before you go into it,” he said. “I’ll probably check out a few other places and see if there is something interesting.” David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
