Career Fair Highlights Local Occupations

SWAN VALLEY – Swan Valley students had the opportunity to explore local occupations at Swan Valley School Career Fair May 17. The Parent Teacher's Association (PTA) organized the event with a grant from the Swan Valley Community Foundation. Students learned about sixteen different occupations from adults in the Swan Valley that wanted to share their careers.

This was the first year the PTA hosted the Career Fair. The participants were set up at tables in the gym and the students went around in groups to visit each table.  Students received handouts, trinkets and saw samples of each participant's work.

To encourage the kids to explore all the tables, the younger students had a check off sheet for the participants to initial that they had visited them. The older students wrote one thing they learned from each presenter. 

PTA President Jenny Kauffman said the comments were fun to read. Because most of the students did not know what a hydrologist was, their comment for Hydrologist Leon Kauffman was that he studied water. 

When the students turned in their completed sheets, they were entered into a drawing to win a $25 gift certificate to the Ice Cream Place. Winners of the gift certificates included Rebecca Klassen, Camden Gleason, Lilly Boyd and Seth Richardson.

The PTA also hosted a Horse Day the Saturday before the fair at the Condon Arena. Horse trainer Jimmy Boyd and farrier Todd McNutt showed the students some horse skills and horseshoeing technique.

Because the Community Foundation's grant exceeded expenses, next year the PTA is planning on taking the students to visit local businesses to experience them first hand.