Allen Tate quoted, “The mission for the day is to encourage students to think beyond traditional career opportunities, prepare for future careers and entrance into the workplace.”

On April 19, Central High School hosted a career event for freshmen with the help of Algebra 1 teacher, Mr. Snyder. The event was from 7:30 AM until 11:00 AM in C-pod. The event covered many different careers that are available and the speakers talked to the students about how they could pursue the career that they wanted. The event was organized as part of Mr. Snyder’s work in the STEM Fellow for the Public Education Foundation.  His work was supported by Darian Scott, Outreach Coordinator for the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce.

Many different people from a wide array of industries in the Chattanooga area came to speak at the event. Some of the people that spoke included: Russell D. Moorehead, a civil Engineer, Londie Nicole, a beautician, Tim Baker, a barber, John Edwards from the Chattanooga Chronicle, and Donna Harrison from Media and Marketing. One speaker on particular, was the manager of Food City, who talked to the students about how he would be recruiting employees for the different positions there. Some topics covered by  the other speakers were how to succeed in college, college cost, and how the speakers  pursued their careers.

There were over 150 students that attended the event. Luke Green, a freshman, stated he learned a lot from the event.

“From the event, I conclude that not all things are easy in life. Take for example trying to get into college, you do not just get put into college and then automatically know what to do from there. There are things that you have to do in order to succeed in college like, keeping your head in the game, and not slacking or simply just giving up. An interesting thing about the event was how you could learn from their life experiences. They also told you about different colleges and information about some of them,” Green commented.

Luke remarked that it was a very good experience, and they taught him some very valuable things. He also declared that the speakers told him that people who are your friends can also be your enemies. Lastly, if you were to drop out of college, do not waste your time doing nothing.

Tim Baker, one of the speakers, is the operator of Bakers Barber College. He stated that he was very informative when addressing the students about pursing a barber career.

“Anyone can be whatever they want to be, and I hope that what the ninth graders gathered from all of the speakers, was that they can pursue any career their passionate about. I also think that they freshman learned some very eye-opening things, and that hopefully they will start to lay the foundation early. So when the time comes they will be ready for anything thrown their way,” stated Baker.

Mr. Snyder commented that it was a great opportunity for the students. He thinks that they learned material that will help them move forward in life. Therefore, the students will then be able to contemplate how they could work towards pursuing their career.