Kids Show Interest In Careers

For any otherwise rational adult, just the thought of spending a day with 1,300 middle school students can be enough to bring on the cold sweats.

But last Wednesday quite a few adults, professionals, business people and educators did just that, and were pleasantly surprised.

The kids were nice. Polite, even. Well-mannered, attentive, interested and respectful. In a word, great.

I was one of those people at the Middle School Career Fair, sponsored by the Warsaw/Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce. Career fairs are usually aimed at high school students, and this was the first one to target middle-schoolers. I manned the Times-Union booth to talk to kids about being a reporter.

The eighth-graders from every middle school in the county were bused in intervals to the Home and Family Arts Building at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds. From my vantage point right beside the door, I was able both to observe and to talk to the students.

Each student was to visit three booths to find out about three different careers. Most of the students were prepared with lists of generalized questions they asked at each booth; the questions usually varied by school.

Some students were obviously there only because they had to be. Others were genuinely interested. All of them were polite, took meticulous notes and thanked me when we were done talking.

Sure, they had a lot of energy, and, when the schools' timing got a little bit off and the building was packed, it was really loud. And, sure, they were excited about being away from school. After all, these were 13- and 14-year-old kids. (Although many of them, especially the girls, looked like they could have been 18 or 20.)

And, yes, they need some work on vocabulary. I actually had not just one but several students throughout the day ask me: "So, like, what do you, like, like about your, like, job?" That is no exaggeration. But, again, they're still young, they'll learn.

One interesting observation was how the students differed by school. For example, almost every student asked for the salary of a beginning reporter. When I told them, kids from Triton, Tippecanoe Valley, Whitko and Warsaw said, "Wow." When I answered that question for the Wawasee students, however, they wrinkled their noses and looked away.

The Times-Union display also included some of the pre-production aspects of newpapering, such as the printing plates and negatives. Almost every student from Lakeview Middle School who came to my booth asked me what they were and how the process worked. Few of the kids from the other schools asked.

All in all, it was a fun and interesting day. I had a blast talking to the students and answering their questions, which were often quite insightful and sometimes made me stop and think before I answered. I was impressed by the students, gratified by their interest and reassured that, if they are our future, then we have nothing to worry about.