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ISD Students Go “Career Shopping”

Posted April 29, 2015
ISD Freshman Career Fair 4.15_0007ISD Freshman Career Fair 4.15_0001

More than 1,000 ISD freshman took their first steps down the path to their future, visiting leaders from more than 60 area businesses during the district’s first-ever Career Skills Fair at MCC’s Business and Technology Center. The fair was the culmination of the ISD’s year-long Freshman Academy class where students begin to choose what career path they want to pursue.

“So many kids go off to college or decide on a career path, but don’t have a good understanding of what that career entails,” said Dr. Dale Herl, ISD superintendent. “The fair gave those kids an opportunity to talk with those in the business world and see if that’s really the career path that they want to go into.”

Several large metropolitan employers, including Cerner, Cisco Systems, Truman Medical Center, Bayer Corporation and Burns and McDonnell, participated in the career fair. Representatives from businesses large and small answered questions and welcomed the opportunity to meet with tomorrow’s workforce.

“I never had anything like this when I was a kid,” said Greg Moore, design architect with Alexander Open Systems, a technological consulting firm. “It exposes them to the different job opportunities there are and plays right into what the district is trying to do with the Ford Next Generation Career Academies.

“It helps students decide what it is they want to do with their lives and start planting those seeds so they can make plans now.”

Thanks to the partnership between the ISD and Ford Next Generation Learning (NGL), the district is one of 18 school districts nationwide transforming public high schools into career-themed academies. The academies provide opportunities for high school students to learn academics with the focus on a potential career like engineering, health care, technology and marketing. This model better prepares students for college and professional success in today’s competitive global economy and the Career Skills Fair was the first step in the process.

“I was very impressed with our students and how engaged they were with the business leaders,” Herl said. “I’m so happy we had so much interest from businesses throughout the metro to become partners in our Career Academies.  We are excited about the partnerships and very appreciative of the time these industry leaders spent with our students.”

School districts participating in the Ford NGL program have higher graduation rates, increased academic achievement, lower dropout rates and students with industry certifications earned in high school.