The Career Fair is an event that Park hosts during lunch hour a couple of times a year. It’s an experience that allows students to get ideas about anything from a future career or a summer job from local organizations and companies. By participating and going from booth to booth, you learn more about internship and job opportunities and get a chance to get a leg up in the job market. The booths from this fair on March 20 included the Twin Cities Medical Training Center, the St. Louis Park’s Police and Fire Fighter Departments, Lunds & Byerlys, and more. There were plenty of different booths that offered different experiences for students to choose from.
Blanca Sanchez, who worked at the Twin Cities Medical Training Center booth, said the biggest takeaway she wanted students to leave with after visiting her booth was how simple access to a career in medicine can be.
“I want to show students that it’s easy to get into a medical career, and phlebotomy offers that easy access. We train seniors during spring break, and then that way they’re ready to get a job in a clinical setting or medical setting right away when they graduate high school,” Sanchez said.
According to fair coordinator Peggy Weller, when she’s looking for people to set up booths, she wants companies that are local and accessible for students.
“I look for companies that are offering summer jobs for the students that are accessible, and that means they should be located in St. Louis Park or a suburb nearby so that students can get easy access to the jobs,” Weller said. “Besides that, just a company that you know pays well, where kids can learn a skill or something new, or just simply save money for college.”
Sanchez said her booth offers interactive experiences to help students get an idea of what a future career in medicine would look and feel like.
“I have a sample arm that we practice on, then you can practice putting the needle into the arm, kind of getting some feeling for what it would be in one of our lab classes,” Sanchez said.
Sophomore Lola Grimm said the Career Fair was very informative and helped her figure out where she might want to work in the future.
“It’s important to me because I think they give good information about jobs and possible career opportunities. They’re interesting and (it’s) fun to see all the different jobs.” Grim said.
According to Weller, finding booths to sign up for the fair can be difficult, but they will keep trying to create these opportunities for students.
“It’s hard sometimes because it’s volunteer, and so we’ll get people that sign up or companies that sign up, and then something happens and they’re unable to exhibit, which is unfortunate. But that’s just the way it is, so we just keep trying year after year,” Weller said.
Sanchez said that finding new students from all over the metro area, including at Park, does a lot to benefit the workforce in certain industries including her own.
“We work with students all over the Twin Cities. I think St. Louis Park has great students that could definitely be beneficial to our medical workforce, which we highly need students in,” Sanchez said.
According to Grimm, she wishes that the school did a bit more to inform students about the opportunities presented to students so that everyone can take advantage of them.
“(Park) should just advertise it more because I went into the link and I didn’t even know there would be a fair, and sometimes it would be nice to know in advance,” Grimm said.
Weller said that the career fair offers great value to students and taking advantage of it and going out and finding a job will teach you things that will stay with you no matter what path you take.
“It teaches them valuable skills that they’re going to need when they go into the job or career world someday. It teaches them reliability, responsibility, and accountability. Those are things that you can learn on the job that are absolutely invaluable, either if you choose to go into college or a post-secondary, or just find a job when you graduate from high school,” Weller said.
