College Fair vs Career Day: Students Make a Choice
Abington High School’s First Career Day a Success
Ms. Pflaumer, newspaper advisor
The Abington High School auditorium is full of sophomore to senior students on September 26, 2019. A Career Day was held for students who were interested in learning more about careers.
October 4, 2019
On Thursday morning, September 26, a College Fair at Hanover High School and a Career Day at Abington High School were held.
Career Day was a day when multiple successful workers from all different backgrounds came to meet with high school students to talk about their specific career choice. Along with describing the tasks they are responsible for in the workplace, they discussed their life’s journey which enabled them to get to where they are today.
Organized by Mrs. Clifford, an English teacher at Abington High, as well as parents Mr. Roberts and Mrs. Marianne Dankese, Career Day featured more than 44 speakers who held presentations in different AHS classrooms. Those students attending Career Day got to attend four different presentations.The presenters gave advice and engaged students in conversations by asking them about their interests. During a Q&A period, the presenters answered any questions students had.
From the Career Day I gained more knowledge because I understood what people did specifically in their careers.
— Kathryn Sage
“Most of the presenters had a connection to Abington. They either were alumni, had children in the school, or live or work in Abington. They all had the common desire to share their experiences with students, and to help answer career questions,’’ Mrs. Clifford said.
One senior, Cameron Curney, was asked why he chose to attend Career Day over the College Fair. “I selected Career Day over College Fair because I went to the college fair last year,” Curney said. He added that he had already completed his college searches and received the information he needed for applying to college, so he felt like Career Day “might be interesting to refine what I want to do post college a little more and learn about some engineering things and some design things.”
Like Curney, senior Kathryn Sage chose Career Day because she attended the college fair last year and wanted to “switch things up.” In comparing the benefits of attending Career Day over the College Fair, Sage said, “From the Career Day I gained more knowledge because I understood what people did specifically in their careers. It was better to see what was happening after college rather than going to the College Fair again to look at colleges.”
Her one suggestion was to hold it for just juniors and seniors because not all students got to attend the presentations they signed up for in the emailed survey prior to the event. Sage said, “I feel as though the sophomores shouldn’t have been included so that juniors and seniors got more of a choice on what career presentations they wanted to attend. If sophomores were eliminated from this event, it would have given more room and opportunities to juniors and seniors to end up with their desired interest.”
Even though students like Curney and Sage attended presentations they did not intend to, they both learned more about themselves and it either helped narrow down or expand their interests and further discover their passions. Curney said that, “Personally, for me, I think three out of my four periods were successful because I ended up getting a lot of information.” He added that “It was interesting learning about these jobs and especially hearing it from the people who came from Abington. It was especially engaging.”
Curney said, “If I had another year of high school, I would probably attend Career Day again and maybe check out some different careers other than the ones I’m kind of focusing on right now. Maybe try out things I haven’t researched as much but still I might find kind of interesting.”
Having Career Day gave students a sense of how they themselves have the potential of being just as successful as the speakers. This event also sparked interests and opened students’ eyes to the many opportunities and paths that can be taken in order to find a career in which they truly love.
Mrs. Clifford, Mr. Roberts, and Mrs. Dankese inspired people by creating and assembling such an event that resulted in the engagement of Abington students. It also prompted students to look further into their future.
Derek Tirrell • Oct 31, 2019 at 1:25 PM
Very informative! The idea of reserving the career fair for upperclassmen is very interesting. On one hand it allows the upperclassmen to see the presentations that they want to, but on the other hand it restricts sophomores from getting a chance to experience presentations that could be exclusive to that year. Great work overall!
Linda Daye • Oct 31, 2019 at 1:13 PM
This article as a whole was really informative on both events, career and college day. I feel as though students in the future will really love doing the career day if we’re meant to have it again. It was important to be the voice for the students who attended the events and I’m glad that you did so. Great article!