The second MiCareerQuest expo brought in students from 30 different school districts across northern Michigan. And they all came to one spot to learn about jobs they might be interested in.
9&10 News found out what the students are gaining by losing a few hours in the classroom. Susan Ward is the Youth Services Manager at Northwest Michigan Works!, and is also the Coordinator for MiCareerQuest. “It’s a hands-on career exploration event for ninth grade students all over Northwest Michigan. We’ve got 2000 students here today.”
MiCareerQuest is a hands-on event focused on college and career readiness.
Mesick High School Freshman Deawon Simerson says, “I went to go see some of the engineering programs and some of the police and military programs as well. And some of the medical programs.”
Freshman classmate Trist’n Manning says, “I was looking at the mechanics part… But I don’t know, that gave me a little bit more open minded two more info about it. So that was pretty cool.”
It’s a wide-open world in the Grand Traverse Civic Center, packed with plenty of potential Ward says there are “60 employers, 70 volunteers. This is definitely a community collaborative event.”
Chloe Mann is also a Mesick ninth grader. She says, “It was pretty chaotic but at the same time it was pretty awesome. Because I got to see the medical side of things. And that’s one of the things that interests me is like the animal or medical side of things.”
Here, the kids are going to get a chance to talk with dozens of employers from around the region, who can give them some ideas of what they might want to do with their career once they graduate high school. Simerson says, “Maybe when I get out maybe I’ll go to the police, or might just become a mechanic and start my own business.” For Manning, he’s glad to be exposed to different options. “I don’t gotta just focus on one thing. Because I’m 16 right now. So there’s more out there that I can learn or do or work on.”
Mann says, “There’s so many opportunities.” And she’s right: from manufacturing and construction, to IT and healthcare, military and law enforcement, and agriculture and fine arts, the sky’s the limit.
Ward says, “There’s definitely the interest in building the talent pipeline. Keeping the students that we have here in northwest Michigan, showing them we have great jobs available here. But also showcasing all of those careers that we have. We’ve had more diverse careers than ever before.”
“Honestly I think it’s really cool and a good opportunity for people to find out what they want to do in life. Because not a lot of people have a plan about what they want to do, and this helps them have that first stepping stone to figure out what they want to do,” Simerson says.
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