Career Paths Explored

Attending the Career Fair, Brooke Phillips (11) takes notes while she speaks with a representative about a future career or job opportunity. photo by Claire Scarborough

Reese Huck, staff

Year after year, instructor Coleen Keffeler organizes the Career Fair, which brings in businesses and colleges from around the area and allows students from Sturgis, Lead-Deadwood, Douglas and Rapid City area schools to experience the opportunity to learn more about what careers to pursue after high school and what colleges to attend.

Organized for the first time nine years ago, the 2016 SBHS career fair was the largest to date with 95 businesses and colleges present.

“We had 95 different careers and postsecondary program represented,” Keffeler said. “We had 103 tables and displays set up, including the trailers outside.”

Students have the opportunity to talk to postsecondary representatives from to see what technical institute or college degrees they might want to pursue and where they want to pursue those degrees. Attending from all over South Dakota and bordering states, a few of the postsecondary institutions participating in the event included Mitchell Technical Institute, Western Dakota Tech, School of Mines and Black Hills State University.

“The Career Fair helped me decide that I definitely wanted to go to Lake Area Tech in Watertown for college,” Chris Fryer (11) said.

Not only were colleges present at the career fair, but local business were also part of the event.

“All students are career bound and hopefully this fair helps them make informed choices,” Keffeler said. “This fair should also help the students make better course selections, as they begin registering for next year’s classes. Furthermore, we want to emphasize that there are good paying jobs in South Dakota and we want our students to be aware of those opportunities.”

“The career fair helped me decide that I want to go into nursing, because it’s what I want to do,” Rileigh Kronmiller (10) said. “With the help the of nurses at the career fair, I am more confident than ever that that is what I want to do with my life.”

“The career fair got me interested in different career paths that I would have never thought of pursuing,” Grace Smith (9) said. “It is a great opportunity for students to go around and take a look at the various career choices that are out there for them. Students can also go around and look at different colleges to decide where they would like to attend and military representative also had booths, if that is what you are interested in.”

Participants enjoyed the various, unique opportunities that the event offered.

“The career fair gave me many different opportunities, and I got to speak to many successful people,” Maddy Karrels (9) said.

Every year the career fair gets more complex and expands in size. This year, in particular, students were shown many different possible future paths, with the largest event to date. If the pattern continues, the career fair will continue to grow as time goes on and become larger and more successful for students.