School-To-Work Expo Provides Hands-On Tips

What do decorating cupcakes, bending conduit, and shaping prosthetic noses have in common? Students at the Henderson County Career Academy got to try their hands at each of these job skills Thursday, at the first annual “School-to-Work Expo.”

The Career Academy’s School Counselor Kim Lopez and Career Development Coordinator Darlene Parent designed the career fair to feature “hands on” career presentations from local professionals who took paths other than the traditional four-year college route to success.

“Our objective is to reinforce how important it is that no matter a student’s occupational goal, they need to make school work for them,” Lopez said. “By ‘working for them,’ we mean taking advantage of occupational exploration, internships, and job shadowing while earning their high school diploma.”

So each professional – ranging from horse farrier to personal trainer – had a sign indicating which level of education and/or certification was needed, the high school course prerequisites, and employable skills required for their jobs.

Between trimming and shoeing a horse’s hooves, Jamie Roberts explained that in his trade, people skills were just as important as equine skills – and that students would need to earn job-specific certificates from a community college in addition to a high school diplomas to become farriers.

Matthew Hickman, baker and co-owner of Underground Baking Co., told students “adaptability to different situations” is an important trait of a small business owner. For example, in the last nine years the artisan bread company has relocated, expanded, added a food truck, and founded a craft coffee roaster next door.

He said part of being an adaptable business owner means learning and mastering new tasks – like crunching numbers in addition to pastries.

“As a small business owner, you do as much as you can,” he said. “QuickBooks, QuickBooks, QuickBooks – learn that and you don’t have to hire a bookkeeper.”

Similarly, Becky Watkins wears many hats in her career with Shuler and Forest Lawn Funeral Homes; not only is she a funeral director, she’s a Certified Funeral Service Practitioner – meaning she handles everything from embalmment to cosmetic restoration.

She explained that sometimes the deceased has missing parts due to accidents or cancer, and she used restorative wax and cosmetics to “restore the deceased to their most normal state possible.”

“When there’s a reconstruction that needs to be made, we ask the family for several different photos … so we can make the prosthesis look natural,” Watkins said.

Students at the Expo could try molding prosthetic noses with Watkins, check out the inside of Wagville Mobile Pet Spaw, bend conduit with MB Haynes Corp, decorate cupcakes with a cake decorator, shoot photographs with a photographer and more – getting a taste of “on the job” experiences with individuals who made careers out of their passions and interests.

– By Molly McGowan Gorsuch
Public Information Officer