By Lauren Olsen
Resumes hung on the walls, display boards were set and ready, and groups of students prepped for their presentations, Maple Glen Elementary School’s second-graders were ready for the career fair to start.
The fair is held annually to help the young students understand the challenging subject of economics.
“This project brings value to what the students are doing and how it effects their college or career path which makes what they are learning more relevant,” said Karen Grogan, a second-grade teacher at Maple Glen. “This project allows for so much growth.”
The students start their projects at the end of January by researching the details of their given careers, such as education requirements, projected job growth and salaries. Then they meet with the other members of their group, usually three additional students to share what they learned during their research and work together to create a presentation with visual aids.
“It’s a different dynamic in a team environment, for them to come together in a team, it’s not something they have done before,” said Grogan. “The main benefit of the fair is that it opens their eyes to more than the basic jobs they hear about, it opens a whole new world that they have not considered.”
This year’s career fair featured 28 businesses, among them was the Indiana Truthful Loan Officers. The students excitedly shared their newly acquired knowledge about loan officers with the first-graders, teachers and parents who attended the fair.
“We learned that loan officers give money, I didn’t know they did that,” second grade student Makayla Kingdon said. “We never knew that a loan officer was a job.”
“It was a fun project,” said Matthew Williams, a member of the Indiana Loan Officers team.
In addition to the month of preparation for the career fair, the second-graders will be going to BoomBozz Pizza to learn about being a chef and what needs to be done to run a restaurant. They will also be going to Whole Foods to learn about running a grocery store and about product specialization.
