Medicine Hat High School SPARK Club members from left, Autumn Lobert, Lyanna Qwin Coleta, Zainab Riaz, Diana Monet and Ilia Ivanov pose for a photo with science teacher Darren Hammel during a STEM Career Fair put on by the club in the schools main foyer Wednesday.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
Members of the Medicine Hat High School SPARK club (supporting passions and advancing real knowledge) held a career fair for fellow students in the school’s main foyer Wednesday morning, hoping to inspire and share insights on careers available within the STEM fields.
Grade 12 student and founder of the SPARK Club, Zainab Riaz, says the club began hosting the career fair last year to help fill a void for opportunities for students within STEM fields in the city, especially in advanced fields like medicine where students must attend university-level classes.
“I think a lot of people are really intimidated by the process of just figuring out what they want to do, and some people really struggle with making a decision,” she said. “So I feel like just having this exposure, having this opportunity, gives a lot of people insight, and I think it makes things more tangible.”
The fair included approximately 20 local experts from various fields, including health care, research, business and education, and provided students the opportunity to gain one-on-one insight on possible career paths within the the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
“I think this is a good opportunity to connect people with community members and let them have a chance to get some mentorship, get some advice and see what their future could look like,” said Riaz.
The career fair included approximately 20 booths of volunteers such as nurses, therapists, technicians, hair stylists, realtors, businesspersons, researchers and post-secondary instructors, who took time to explain a variety of aspects of their career to interested students.
“(We are) helping students navigate the process of what schools they could maybe go to once they graduate from here, what programs to enter into,” said science teacher Darren Hammel. “And answering general questions like what do you do after hours. Sometimes kids are just curious about what a teacher makes.”
Hundreds of students were able to attend the career fair between classes and during their breaks.
“That’s kind of everybody’s goal here today is to break down some of the stereotypes of certain jobs and to give them that transparency as to what a career in their field might look like exactly.”
The 10 student-member SPARK club was able to organize the career fair through intensive community outreach, weekly meetings and student-made tri-folds for each booth.
“As soon as we came back from the strike, we started working on contacting people in the community. I was going around, driving to places and just asking if people would be interested,” said Riaz, who explained the SPARK club was able to organize the career fair within a three-week time period.
“It takes a lot of effort,” she said while describing the work put into each tri-fold. “We wanted to make sure they look good and we wanted to make sure they represent people correctly. So we were very meticulous when it comes down to that.”
Grade 11 student and SPARK club member Autumn Lobert, who has a passion for psychology, says it’s important students get exposed to several career paths to be able to make informed decisions on their future.
“It’s very important for people to figure out their career before they graduate, so they have a clear plan,” said Lobert. “And this is a good way to expose them to see what they are interested in or what they definitely don’t want to do, it just kind of exposes them to what to expect in a job if you do that job or things you’re uncomfortable with.”
The career fair also provided Medicine Hat College the opportunity to promote its programming and highlighted the benefits of attending a smaller post-secondary institution.
“It’s a really good opportunity for the college to promote different programs they have and they’re trying to push that people should attend a small institution because it has a lot of benefits, so people shouldn’t overlook the college,” said Riaz.
Members of the SPARK club say they aim to continue promoting STEM careers throughout local high schools and open more career pathways to fellow students.
