New Palestine Junior High School students Aryonna Thomas and Addison Maddox learning about public safety.
INDIANAPOLIS — Wearing bright pink shirts and broad smiles, eighth graders from New Palestine Junior High School were some of the 15,000 eighth graders across the state who attended the Junior Achievement (JA) of Central Indiana’s career fair last week.
The NPJH eighth graders had the chance to explore various career paths including in things like agriculture, business and finance, government, hospitality, technology, public services, and health and life sciences.
The event is called, “JA JobSpark” and was held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds from Tuesday to Thursday, where students got to take part in the activities set up across three different buildings. The JA JobSpark is a multi-day, hands-on career expo impacting the students with the hope they have some fun and might find a job they’re interested in.
Molly Baines, director of JA JobSpark, says it’s important to show students what’s out there.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Baines said. “It’s very different from a standard career fair because it’s very interactive. It’s hands-on. We don’t pass out a lot of brochures or flyers or things like that, so students can actually get in and try the equipment.”
New Palestine Junior High School counselor Melissa Hurst helped organize the event for the NPJH kids and noted in preparation for the event, students engaged in in-class curriculum focusing on personality types and potential career paths.
“We hope this experience helps them make informed choices about their high school courses and sparks their interest in future career opportunities,” Hurst said.
New Palestine Junior High School eighth grade algebra teacher Brad Sevier JA Jobspark was a great event that gave NPJH 8th graders an opportunity to learn more about jobs available to them after high school.
“Even though this week’s events at NPJH have been geared toward College Go Week, Job Spark showed students many occupations that do not require a college degree,” Sevier said. “Students these days need to realize that they don’t necessarily need to go to college after high school to make a good living.”
The students Sevier noted were able to visit many hands-on booths, and talk with local professionals from local companies.
“This field trip also gave students an opportunity to ‘spark’ up a conversation with their friends and parents about what possible path they may choose,” Sevier said. “I was very impressed with the organization, time, and effort that went into making this event possible and I look forward to attending again next year with my students.”
Professionals in the industries were around to talk about what they do and interact with the students. Beth Petrucce, the community engagement director at Ascension St. Vincent, a health care provider, helped bring volunteers to the event. She headed up organizing the health and life sciences cluster. Petrucce says the event is a great way to get involved with the next generation.
“When they leave there’s always a lot of excitement in this cluster,” Petrucce said. “It’s quite large, and all the organizations work together to bring these activities for the students so they can really see ‘Oh, I thought I wanted to be this when I grow up, but this is a really neat new career that I didn’t even know existed.’”
Prior to attending students took part in an introduction and career assessment; career clusters and employability skills; preparing for JA JobSpark and will be asked to do a JA JobSpark reflection and follow up session.
Students had the chance to learn about skills needed for jobs that will be in demand when they graduate and learn about the equipment used on those jobs daily. The hope is that students left the day with a better understanding of the courses they’ll need to take in high school, a track for post-secondary and a clear career pathway for what they find they are interested in.
JA JobSpark is a part of Junior Achievement’s career- exploration curriculum that has been delivered to many of the students throughout their academic experience, beginning in elementary school. Through virtual interaction, students have the opportunity to interact with professionals from eight industry clusters and learn about future in demand careers.
