One of Ridgeview High School’s priorities is to give students faith and opportunity in their future careers. Introducing the Career Fair helps Ridgeview students do just that. The Career Fair is a gathering of different businesses and organizations that are there for the student’s benefit. The Career Fair was held during lunch which according to students didn’t give much time to ask questions and get the full experience. During this event, students are introduced to new careers and have opportunities to ask questions regarding a career they show interest in.
One of the Career Fair benefits is posing a wide range of job opportunities for students. Student Eric Cantu says.” Now I have applications to In and Out and now I know how to access Valley Strong.” There were a variety of booths including In and Out, The Military Corp, and the Sheriff’s Department. Booths that were available for questions regarding their careers.
Student Esa Serrano says, “maybe they could have added careers that had to do with medical. I think a lot of people have a lot of interest in that so it would have been nice to see.” The most visited booth was In and Out. Many students received applications to fast food places which posed job opportunities to the students. Many booths that were reached out to were unfortunately unable to make it, such as the Barber School and Navy Branch.
Although the Career Fair posed job opportunities, Counselor Claire Miller states, “it was strictly for career. College is very separate. I wanted to make sure it was two separate things.” CSUB and Bakersfield College also attended however, Miller explains that it was solely advertisement for their apprenticeship program.
The Career Fair was set up in order to offer various opportunities for students regarding their careers. Miller explains, “ We really wanted to offer some different options or opportunities for students right out of high school.” Planning the career fair took effort because it was an organized activity that needed multiple participants. Miller explains, “ I started at the beginning of the school year so it took me a good month and a half.” As far as having another career fair, Miller explains that she plans to have another one around April. She hopes to have more booths and for the ones who couldn’t attend to be there.
Since the career fair was only about an hour, it didn’t give students an efficient amount of time to ask as many questions. Cantu says, “ I wish they had given more opportunity to talk because it felt like a long line at a really fast going pace. I didn’t really get whatever I wanted out.” However, Miller plans on having a second Career Fair. Miller explains, “ We thought about maybe springtime again, so we can do more immediate hires like for summer jobs, but definitely next school year for sure.”
