By Cathy Higgins
BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Thinking about the future can be overwhelming when you’re in high school. But next week Baldwin County High School students will get a little help with the North Baldwin Chamber of Commmerce’s Baldwin County High School Career Horizon Expo.
The inaugural event is set for the morning of Oct. 13 at the school gymnasium.
“There’s going to be 600 11th and 12th graders in the gym,” NBCC Executive Director Margo Allen said in a telephone interview.
Not all at once, though. In groups of approximately 75, with the help of volunteers from North Baldwin Young Professionals, the students will wend their way through the gym to visit any of among 30 vendors.
“The students are required to visit at least four vendors,” Allen said. “Each vendor will mark off on a card the student receives when they start.
That completed card will earn the students the chance to win an iPad at the Baldwin County Board of Education-funded event.
Among those vendors will be representatives from colleges, industries, civil service and military recruiters.
“They’ll give students an idea of realistic salaries they can expect and performance expectations in the workplace,” Allen said. “They’ll also learn the education required for career choices.”
In addition, students will get a chance to talk with someone who was once where they are now.
“We’ll also have a Baldwin County High School graduate spotlight,” Allen said. “The first one will be John Perette, the Baldwin County EMA (Emergency Management Agency) director.”
The vision for the expo was birthed a year ago at an idea session in which elected officials and members of the professional community discussed ways to boost education and career motivation in the area.
“We started looking at what the chamber of commerce could do,” Allen said, explaining that the chamber’s Education Committee set the inaugural event in motion.
With so much planning and participation invested, Allen expects the expo to be quite a useful tool in helping students begin to forge a future.
“It’s turning out to be a wonderful event,” she said.
