For the second year in a row, Waverly High School students packed the gym to explore potential careers and educational opportunities after high school.
This year, over 50 local businesses and college representatives took part in the Waverly High School Career Fair. The students were broken up by class and had time to talk to schools about their programs, learn more about local careers, and even find potential summer employment.
“The benefits of events like these are endless for our students,” said Casey Phillips, teacher and career fair organizer. “We’ve had students apply to the schools, find summer jobs, and in some cases, find full-time employment.”
The experience is also important for local businesses focused on finding future employees.
“It’s absolutely vital that we participate in these high school career fairs so that we can start planting the seeds of interest for when these students eventually graduate college, technical school, or apprenticeship training, “said Fluor-BWXT Human Resources Manager Todd Cron. “The competition for skilled workers is fierce, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. This type of ground level recruitment efforts will pay dividends in the years to come for our project and the PORTS site in general.”
Even if the students aren’t looking for a job or ready to apply to school, the career fair offers important experience.
“The students get to practice talking to adults and professionals,” added Phillips. “These days are driven by technology and that’s great for the most part, but they need to learn how to have these face-to-face conversations on a professional level, and I think this is a great opportunity for that.”
For some students, the chance to talk with representatives from colleges or career training schools is a great way to focus on what they can do now to prepare for the next step.
“We want to help set all our students up for success whether the next step is college, vocational training, or a career,” said Waverly Superintendent Bill Hoover. “The career fair gives our students a chance to learn about new opportunities, set goals and talk with the people who can help them reach those goals.”
Casey Phillips, "We'd like to give a special shout out to Beast and Bottle of Waverly for providing lunch to our community representatives and Jet's Popcorn of Portsmouth for the popcorn favors!"
Those in attendance were as follows:
Frontier
COAD
Ohio University
Paramount Beauty Academy
First National Bank
State Farm
Capital University
Coast Guard
YMCA
Shawnee State
ODOT
Rio Grande
Adena
Pike County General Health District
SOMC
Waverly Police Department
Army National Guard
Universal Technical Institute
Community Action
Ohio Means Jobs
Navy
Asplundh Tree
Ohio Valley Bank
The Ohio State University
Walmart
Future Plans
GRIT
Atomic Credit Union
Fluor-BWXT
State Fire Marshal
Scioto Paint Valley Mental Health
Kenworth
Electrical Training Academy
Ross Pike ESD
Rural King
Herff Jones, Inc.
Columbus State
Scioto County CTC Adult Education