A look forward

The Waseca Community Arena played host to a career fair on Monday, May 22, which offered a bit more than the usual flyers and packets of information on job opportunities. This fair gave high school sophomores, juniors and even a few seniors hands-on activities to see what a career in welding or nursing would be like.

“We wanted this career fair to be more immersive for the students,” explained Waseca Chamber of Commerce Executive Directive Ann Fitch. “We really wanted the students to get their hands and minds working for this event. We wanted all the businesses to give some kind of engaging activity to the students so they could experience what their line of work is like.”

Other companies, such as Junior Achievement of Owatonna, took a different approach to getting students active in the career fair. These organizations offered a disc drop game which asked students questions about a variety of topics, including naming a statistic about Waseca or providing a fact about the region.

“We visited most of these students when they were in second through fifth grades,” District Manager Vanessa Jensen explained. “We gave them a little bit of information about our area and different career paths they could take.”

In a way, it was a pop quiz for the students many years later.

Other companies such as the New Ulm non-profit Big Ideas were much more immersive. At one station set up outside in the parking lot, students could test out welding. Another booth inside the arena provided students with a virtual reality experience in fields such as electrician, plumber, small engine repair, or other skill trade.

The career fair was sponsored in part by the Waseca Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Waseca High School. Fitch gives the Waseca School District’s Teaching and Learning Assistant Kari Wadd a majority of the credit for helping put the event together.

“She was an instrumental part in making this happen,” she said. “She helped us coordinate with the vendors at this career fair so we could give the kids as immersive of an experience as possible.”