Most traditional career fairs allow employers to showcase their companies and job openings to prospective employees. However, a reverse career fair at Siloam Springs High School on Friday allowed students to take the lead and show local companies what they have to offer.
A group of 20 high school seniors, who are part of the school's career in technical program, set up booths decorated with examples of their work in the Panther Activity Center and handed out resumes to prospective employers.
The reverse career fair is the result of a partnership between the school district and the Siloam Springs Chamber of Commerce, according to Ross White, assistant principal and director of the career and technical program, and Nathan Reed, vice president of economic development for the chamber.
The two organizations also partnered to host a pilot reverse career fair for Career Academy of Siloam Springs (CASS) students in the fall and a hands-on career fair for eighth-graders in March. CASS focuses on certifying students for a career industrial maintenance.
Students from the school's seven career technology programs represented in the reverse career fair on Friday, included the agriculture, business and marketing, CASS, engineering, family consumer sciences, medical professions and audiovisual, technology and film programs.
Thirteen employers toured the booths, talking with students. Local industries have invested in the school's career and technical programs, especially CASS, so the reverse career fair allows the industries to get access to the students who are graduating from those programs to reap a return on their investment, White and Reed said. Two of the students who participated in the reverse career fair last fall landed paid internships with Simmons Foods this summer, they said.
"(Employers) can come in and meet those students who are going through the programming that they support, recruit them, give them scholarships," Reed said. "Above and beyond that, it potentially keeps some of the brightest minds that Siloam has out of the school district, as opposed to them going outside the community."
The career fair not only gives employers access to local students who have the potential to become loyal, lifelong employees, it helps students realize there are opportunities for well-paying careers in Siloam Springs, Reed said.
"If these students can meet with these companies and these companies get somebody from their hometown at 18 years old and you build that loyalty, you've got a 40-year employee who will continue moving up and you could have a very high level manager by the time 40 years is up and a very crucial part of your business," he said.
Fire Marshall Dustin Kindell attended the reverse career fair to represent the Siloam Springs Fire Department.
Kindell said the fire service can use employees who are interested in everything from marketing to engineering and the medical field.
The fire department's job is to serve the community so recruiting local students is a good thing, he said.
"Our job is to serve and when you know your neighbors it helps," he said.
Kindell described the students he met on Friday as "driven," and said the school district has done an amazing job at preparing them.
"I'm telling you, you can go and look at some of what they've accomplished I didn't get accomplished until I was in college and they're in high school, and they've accomplished so much already," he said.
The reverse career fair gives students a chance to learn soft skills such as selling their skills to employers and networking, White said.
"I think this kind of takes them out of that comfort zone and kinda you're on display and they're going to ask you questions," White said.
Medical professions student Jaelee Snyder said the career fair helped her learn to write a resume and communicate with prospective employers.
"I've already made so many connections being at the reverse career fair," she said.
Snyder, who recently passed her certifications to become a Registered Medical Assistant and phlebotomist, will be graduating high school this month with a year of work experience thanks to an internship at the Siloam Springs Regional Hospital.
Her internship at the hospital helped her confirm she is interested in a career in nursing and after working in all of the departments, it also helped her hone in on a specific niche. She plans to attend Arkansas Tech University in the fall to study to become a registered nurse and eventually a nurse anesthetist.
Business student Jacob Reprogle said the reverse career fair helped him network with potential employers and helped him practice professional communication skills.
"It's all about knowing somebody -- getting contact information to chase careers," he said.
Reprogle said that the career and technology program has been valuable because it not only helped him figure out what he wants to do, it helped him decide what he doesn't want to do -- potentially saving him more than $120,000 in earning college degrees in a field that is not right for him.
Reprogle said since seventh grade he wanted to become a corporate lawyer but a business law class during his sophomore year helped him realize he didn't really want to spend his career writing up contracts. The same year, he also took an enterprise management class, and realized he was interested in entrepreneurship and technology.
He compared choosing a career as a high school senior without any experience in the industry to buying a house online sight unseen. Now he plans to attend Arkansas Tech University and major in business analytics, so he can combine those interests and focus his career on finding ways to use technology to solve business problems.
Reprogle's internship as a systems analyst intern at DaySpring also helped set him choose a career.
"I thought this is so awesome and I love it and that inspired me to chase that goal and chase that career and go down that road," he said.
General News on 05/08/2019