Students' eyes open to unique careers
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter

Northborough - When thinking about career fairs, the cast of characters is often the same: a doctor, a lawyer, a firefighter and maybe a businessperson. But FBI agent? How about video game designer?

These are exactly the kinds of people that were available to fifth-grade students at Peaslee Elementary School in Northborough during their unconventional career fair this month.

Even more unconventional than the people invited to speak at the fair, however, were the people who organized it.

Emily Kellner, Steph Francoise and Elena Tand are all seniors at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School who put together the career fair as part of a semester-long community service project for their marketing class.

They wanted to give local elementary school kids a chance to explore diff erent career opportunities that they may not have considered or may not have even heard of before.

"There are a million opportunities that maybe they haven't heard of that really fit something that they're interested in," Kellner said.

The girls recruited friends' parents and sought out other local professionals online, securing 10 people to speak with the students about their jobs.

PHOTO/MELISSA MUNTZ Career fair organizers (l to r) Steph Francoise, Emily Kellner and Elena Tand listen in as students learn what it's like to be a graphic designer.

In addition to the FBI agent and video game designer, the kids also met with a personal trainer, a graphic designer, a baker, an interior decorator, a landscaper, a geologist, a journalist and a scientific researcher.

The girls said they wanted the fair to represent a broad range of fields so they'd include as many kids' interests as possible.

"We tried to put ourselves in the eyes of younger kids and not just gravitate around our own interests," Kellner said.

The idea of the unique career fair came from their own limited exposure to diff erent careers as younger students.

"When we were in elementary school, we would have guest speakers come in and talk about their jobs, but there was never anything really different," Francoise said. "And this is still really helpful for us, too, because we're 17 and 18 and we don't know what we want to be yet either."

Each of the fifth-graders was given a survey listing the 10 jobs prior to the fair and asked to outline what they thought each job would be like. While meeting with the diff erent professionals, they then filled out a second sheet, where they detailed the required job training and day-to-day responsibilities, as well as one interesting fact about each job.

Following the fair, the students will complete an assignment discussing what they learned about each job and how that compared to their preconceived notions.

All of the information will be organized by the three girls, who will present their findings along with a 30-page paper at a Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) Competition.

The girls said it will be easy to show the judges how important exposing younger children to diff erent types of professions can be to them as they choose their own career paths in the future.

"We can get the kids thinking about their favorite subject in school or favorite activity to do after school and show them that many of these can lead to fun and exciting careers in the future," Tand said.