Students in Idaho Falls District 91 explore their future options

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)- Idaho Falls School District 91 has hosted it's third career fair, in hopes of encouraging students to explore their future. D91 students didn't have to go far on the quest, as the Hero Arena at the Mountain America Event Center held the event this year.

85 vendors at the arena guided the young explorers with a road map, of sorts, to the future, with information on resources and opportunities available.

"They're talking about Launch, and combining the opportunities kind of open for them with career opportunities they hadn't thought of. And some of them are thinking about now," District 91 superintendent Karla LaOrange said.

Many of the students were excited to find out just what the future may hold for them.

"It was it was great. I came last year too as a sophomore, so it was good to get to experience it again and find other things to experience as well," Catrina Gianni, a junior at Skyline High School, said.

"Personally, I think law enforcement is interesting. And also I'm huge into auto mechanics. I'm thinking I'm going to start doing that next year at CTEC," Hudson, another Junior at Skyline High School, said.

"If I plan out early, I'll have a higher chance of being more successful later on. So I just got to check new options," says Maddox from Skyline.

They also said they were excited to find new options that they might not have known about it before.

" I found a couple of places that offer like biology majors, but I also found like the Idaho Museum is offering jobs for the younger students," Catrina said.

"A lot of kids this age don't know what they're doing. And the career fair gives these kids opportunities to know what they want to do after high school," Hudson said.

For those manning booths and passing out information, they were excited to guide students at the career fair for another year.

"A lot of the jobs are available right in their backyard, you know, so we want to just spark the interest of our students for them to know that these options are available within their city," said Yuliana Gatica, a college and career advisor with Idaho Falls High School.

Gatica said many of the students who had shared with her students were excited by the opportunity.

"A lot of the time when they come to these places, they get to find out things that, you know, spark an interest that they didn't even know they had before. So they get to come and talk to people open, you know, their mindset of what's available. And as I was walking through and seeing our kids interact with the different vendors it was pretty cool to see how excited they are about knowing that new trade opportunities are available for them," Gatica said.

LaOrange said the district was happy to provide their students with this opportunity.

"It helps them see and be exposed to different options and opportunities that are available to them, many of which they probably aren't even aware of and haven't thought of. So this is a showcase of everything that we are and that we are going to continue to build upon and strengthen," LaOrange said.

LaOrange added that they are thankful so many in the community wanted to come and help guide these students along their quest.

Area vendors shared their outlook on providing options for student careers.

"Some kids have asked us, you know what jobs can I have at West Mark with or without a degree? And we talked about how you can be an accountant, you can be an I.T., you could be in the marketing department, you could do loans. There's a lot more beyond just being a bank teller," said Kaitlin Miller, Education Specialist for Westmark Credit Union.

"Once they're here, we're talking about, what we do as credit unions or financial institutions, I think it's kind of you to see the shock in some of their eyes of just kind of they don't they've never understood the difference between a bank or credit union and things like that," said Levi Gribas from Look Out Credit Union.

Miller said students hoping to go to college also learned about new scholarship options.

"We've talked to the seniors about our scholarship. We give away 15 scholarships each, which are worth $2,500 each. And we've been talking to them about what are their plans after high school if they have any," Miller said.

Gribas also added that the students they talked with were getting excited about their future.

"They like to come and fill their bags up with all the goodies and stuff like that. But I do think it's one of those things that you get them thinking about their future because up until now it's just kind of they have high school. Their day-to-day is pretty much the same and it's this open to opening to a new world of change, of what happens after high school, which just gets them excited," Gribas shared.