Career & Leadership Job Fair

I took half a day off, as personal leave, on Wednesday in order to attend the Career & Leadership Job Fair, put on by the Youth Employment in Parks (YEP) and the Alaska Youth for the Environment (AYEA). I was there as the Alaskan Field Representative for the Earthwatch Institute.

They had the upper level of the Atwood Hall, one of the buildings on the Alaska Pacific University Campus, all set up with tables lined up for about 25-30 different businesses. Most of them were offering employment for the kids, but some – like mine – offered opportunities rather than jobs.

Earthwatch sent me a bunch of brochures, catalogs, postcards, and whatnot for this event, and I had my lap-top (thank you, Stewart) with me to show my power-point program. Set up was easy enough: simply lay the material out and get the lap-top hooked up and running.

I was supposed to share a table with the Imaginarium, but they never showed up. That would have been cool – I like them.

There were probably about 50-60 kids attending the event, and all of them – at one point or another – stopped by each table to see what was offered. Some of them were clearly not interested, but other’s got very excited about us. I handed out most of my postcards and even some of the catalogs.

My student shadow was there: Melissa stopped by with some of her friends to check out my computer program. She is very much in to travel and volunteering, so was one of the ones who was most interested. I’m hoping that she will actually go on an expedition – I think she’d love it.

Unfortunately, I was fighting a bad migraine the entire time. It was a struggle just getting thru the 4 hours without throwing up! Thankfully, the event wound down slightly earlier than anticipated, and I got to finally go home to bed.

It was worth it, though. I think the kids really got a lot out of their day!