By Adam Henschel
On Wednesday, February 14, Mashpee High school will be hosting its inaugural career fair.
The highly anticipated event, part of student Grace Whipper’s senior project, has entered the limelight in recent weeks as teachers have began breaking down the intangibles of the fair in homeroom classes. However, many questions have arisen among students as to exactly what this career fair is and how it will benefit those who participate, as the date is fast approaching.
On Wednesday, February 14, Mashpee High school will be hosting its inaugural career fair.
The highly anticipated event, part of student Grace Whipper’s senior project, has entered the limelight in recent weeks as teachers have began breaking down the intangibles of the fair in homeroom classes. However, many questions have arisen among students as to exactly what this career fair is and how it will benefit those who participate, as the date is fast approaching.
Grace Whipper entered her senior year this September not knowing exactly what path she wanted to take in her life or what career would be best suited for her skill set. Feeling both uncertainty and stress regarding her future endeavors, she decided to make her senior project one that would help students to begin finding their calling at a younger age to prevent them from entering senior year in the same way she had.
Whipper believes, “That as a Freshman in high school you should be able to pick your classes knowing what your interest is...starting as early as you can will allow them to begin doing what they are passionate about rather than going through the motions each day.” Her powerful project hopes to reach out to younger generations and ensure that everybody at Mashpee High School finds their niche before it is too late.
Along with the help of Guidance Director Ms. Kett, Whipper has organized a wide variety of speakers and different career clusters that range from marketing and business to math, science, and engineering and even human services. The survey taken on Monday, February 12 will allow students to choose career clusters to visit based on their interests in potential careers. Once they choose their top three choices for career fields, they will be separated into 2 different breakdown groups where they will be exploring the selected careers in the gym, auditorium, cafeteria, or other locations.
The fair will be held in addition to the more conventional annual college fairs as the two differ in purpose, Ms. Kett said. Rather than focusing on schools, costs, and majors, as college fairs do, the career field will focus more on the everyday life of workers in their fields, she said. In this, way the hope is that student will get a more realistic view of how people work, rather than glorified descriptions on paper, as colleges and websites often display. She said they not only get a more realistic view, but students are granted a first person perspective of what it is like to do a variety of jobs, from people who experience the careers for themselves everyday.
If all goes well on February 14, both Ms. Kett and Grace hope the Career Fair will become a longstanding tradition. The duo has the ultimate goal of “giving students an opportunity to see what they genuinely want to do as early as possible,” Whipper said. Both the inspired Mashpee senior and Ms. Kett look forward to the Career Fair and the precedent they are currently setting in regards to helping students find a practical passion. With the Career Fair on the horizon, only excitement looms for the pair who has spent months piecing together this crucial event, as they can finally see the benefits of their labor for the future generation of American workers.