Third grade students from Chapel Hill ISD’s Jackson Elementary were exposed to a variety of career paths on Friday.
Roaming around the Career and Technology Education building, students made stops at different classrooms where high school students showcased careers such as cosmetology, culinary, engineering and more.
With a goal to interest the younger generation, high school students not only demonstrated different careers but also gave the third grade students activities revolving around the programs.
Inside the engineering classroom, Eston Rodriguez, 8, demonstrated his leadership and teamwork skills during a construction activity. Students were given five sheets of paper and had to build the biggest tower, which is something Rodriguez found really fun.
Rodriguez wants to be a doctor when he grows up, but said he learned things about different career paths such as engineering and that you can use different materials to build different things, he said.
Analise Flores, senior at Chapel Hill High School, is part of the engineering program and said a goal of the engineering showcase was to pique the interest of the third grade students.
Flores said activities included problem-solving activities, construction, team building and ways for students to utilize their resources efficiently.
“We’re giving them a taste of different types of engineers there are…,” said Flores.
Christy Murray, associate principal at Chapel Hill High School, said each year the exposure is done for students throughout the district with a goal to expose students to career paths at a young age.
“Each year in order to provide college and career exposure throughout the district, we invite the students from the elementary and the intermediate campuses to tour the CTE facility. Through these experiences with our practicum, students are able to learn more about our programs, and participate in some hands-on labs and experiences,” she said. “We really want to get the kids thinking about college and career early on.”
“The objective of this is just to give them that exposure early on. We want them to start thinking about these career choices early, and just kind of exposing them to them. So they’re always talking about it. We’re starting young, they’ll be introduced to it in middle school, and they’ll get to make their final decisions once they get to high school…”