The Community Times Dispatch

Middle school students took a close-eye view of some educational and workforce options available to them after high school graduation, last week. The students spent part of their day touring the USC Salkehatchie campus in Walterboro and another part of their day navigating stations of a career fair at the National Guard Armory on Cottageville Highway in Walterboro

According to the Colleton County Career Specialists, the initiative gave students an opportunity to interact with individuals across the various career clusters for which the students and their parents will need to make a decision prior to the completion of the student’s middle school experience.

Many area vendors, including those in beauty, childcare, healthcare, non-profit, retail, insurance, photography, educational, utilities, media, military, financial, modeling, and service each seemed to enjoy interfacing with students from Colleton Middle, Forest Circle Middle and Ruffin Middle schools.

Although Thunderbolt Career and Technology Students were at the career fair to expose the middle school students to the various options available them at the school, TCTC Completer Larry Henderson and Dual Completer Terry Green took an opportunity to visit US Army Recruiter Linder. Henderson and Green acknowledged that the military could be a viable option on their career path.

Henderson said he has a goal to own a business that could offer quality benefits for his employees. He is currently a masonry completer at TCTC. Green said he currently works part-time on the weekends with his instructor. He is a welding and masonry completer at TCTC.

“I think the military could help me get the skills to manage the employees in my company one day,” said Henderson.

Many of the students present at the career fair seemed to have a career target in mind. Ruffin Middle School eighth grade students Mahogany Morris and Kareyah Harrison said they want to practice law, Jessika Robinson said she wants to become a crime scene investigator, and Raven Youmans said she wants to become a registered nurse.

Some students appeared to be fascinated by some of the technology some of the career vendors made available to students. Counton2News newscaster Octavia Mitchell provided demonstrations of her high-tech video camera on one side of the career fair, while TCTC students demonstrated some of their technology on another side.

There were many experiences available for the youth to gain valuable knowledge toward their possible career choices.