Before school finished for the summer in June, 194 fifth-grade students at Warren Area Elementary Center were able to learn about various occupations during a career fair.
Fifteen presenters from the community volunteered their time for the event, including Atty. Gregg Hammond, Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Jeff Walters and Veterinarian Technician Barb McCullough.
Deb Jannotti, school counselor at WAEC, hoped the fair would send a positive message to students about life in the working world.
Jannotti said she wanted the students to learn the importance of graduating from high school, work standards for various careers, professional ethics and the different education levels required for a particular position.
"Not everything requires a four-year degree," said Jannotti.
According to Jannotti, over the summer, the career program curriculum in the Warren County School District will be governed by standards formulated by a team from the district traveling to Harrisburg.
"It will be a more formalized process," explained Jannotti.
I was able to participate in the career fair to educate the students about my job as a newspaper reporter.
I brought various visuals, including laminated copies of newspaper pages and drafts of stories to show the students the process of how a story idea makes it to the front page of the newspaper. I also explained the importance of skills like spelling, grammar and proper punctuation as well as the opportunity to be creative when writing an article.