Students eager to formulate decisions about their future were on hand Friday for a career fair at Motlow College and Tennessee Technology Center.
Seventh-graders from around the county were treated to information provided by experts in a variety of fields. Career representatives came from around the spectrum, from agriculture to automotive repair, from education to engineering.
“Most seventh-graders have no idea what they want to do as a career,” said Dibrell guidance counselor Chastity Wrisner. “This is a great head start to get them ready for their future.”
Students were able to gain valuable information to help them make future educational and career decisions, organizers said.
Laughter could be heard down the hallway coming from the chemistry classroom of Dan Swarling and Jeff Boles, two chemistry professors at Tennessee Tech. The two talked about chemistry careers and taught chemistry through demonstrations. Students held their ears when the lid was blown off a container.
WCMS seventh-grader David Romero said the chemistry demonstration was his favorite. “It was cool. With chemistry, you can explode something!”
Many students were fascinated by demonstrations in the Mechatronics lab. Mechatronics is a blend of mechanical, electrical and computerized technologies that together form a system used by many industries including manufacturing, automotive, finance, and healthcare.
Robots used in manufacturing are made using Mechatronics technology. Individuals trained and certified in Mechatronics are in high demand and can expect high job demand in the field.
Larry Flatt, instructor of Mechatronics at Motlow College said, “Mechatronics is taking over the nation. Other community colleges are calling us asking how to start this program in their schools. We are teaching theory and providing practical administration of the theory.”
He also said Mechatronics will be offered for the first time this coming fall at Warren County High School. Students can take Mechatronics as a class, then continue their education at Motlow and receive either a certificate of credit or an applied science degree in Mechatronics Technology.
WCMS seventh-grader Kaleb Pelham said the engineering demonstration was the most interesting to him because he loves learning about robots. Kaleb said he thought he wanted to be an engineer, and now he knows he wants to be one.
WCMS student Jerica Haywood enjoyed the TBI class. She hopes to work in a forensics laboratory some day.
The nursing class was the favorite of WCMS students Tia Perkins and Abby Clark. Tia wants to be a nurse and Abby’s goal is to become a pediatrician. They both said they loved what they saw and can’t wait to get to study nursing or medicine in their future.
The communications and computer operations class was favored by WCMS student Derick Ridge. He said, “It was awesome. They built a computer under some kind of liquid or chemicals.”
Derick said he wants to create video games some day and this class was very interesting.
The career fair was sponsored by Bridgestone/ Firestone.