Students and faculty in the business and marketing departments at T. C. Williams High School held the first career fair March 24 and deemed it "a tremendous success."
“We sent out about 300 invitations to different businesses and about 70 groups sent representatives,” said Michael Diggins, one of the sponsors of the event. “We tried to get representation from the 15 leading career opportunity areas.”
These areas included local and federal government; banking; nonprofit organizations; hospitality; healthcare; legal; education and law enforcement. Representatives from branches of the armed forces were also present.
“We wanted to give the kids an opportunity to talk with representatives of these different organizations and learn more about a wide variety of career opportunities,” Diggins said.
Kenneth Hillary, a junior, was pleased with the career fair. “I got an opportunity to talk to a lot of different people,” he said. “I got some information and am interested in a number of computer and technical opportunities.”
EVERY STUDENT at T. C. Williams had the opportunity to visit the career fair and talk with business representatives. “I think it went really well,” said Tiffany Young, the president of DECA, the marketing club that worked with teachers to plan the fair. “We wanted everyone to have an opportunity to get information about the many different careers that are out there and that happened.”
Diggins and Matlea Parker, another teacher who helped plan the event, prepared a booklet for students to use as they spoke with presenters at the fair.
“We tried to give them some ideas about questions to ask and provided them with a multiple intelligence assessment to help determine which careers might suit them best,” Diggins said.
Some of the suggested questions included: what should I study in college; what do I need to know to do this job; what kinds of speaking and listening skills do I need; what kind of hours will I work and do I need to know another language.
“The main goal was to expose the kids to the many different opportunities that are out there and to teach them how to interact with potential employers,” Diggins said. “We do hope that some of the companies will agree to host student interns as well.”
While this was the first career fair, it will not be the last. “We didn’t have these opportunities when I was a student here,” Diggins said. “They are important and we will certainly host another one next year.”