Northeast Community College welcomed about 550 ninth-grade students from 25 schools across its 20-county service area for its annual Ninth Grade Career Day, one of the largest single-day events on campus.
On Friday, December 12, the ninth graders came from as far as Burwell, Stuart and Bancroft-Rosalie, learning what the educational requirements would be for dozens of careers, among other things.
Becky Miller, Northeast communications and recruitment coordinator, said Northeast had as many as 800 students in the past, but has found the best presentation for students occurs from about 500 to 600 students.
“For many of the students, this is their first taste of Northeast or maybe even a college campus,” Miller said. “It helps them to understand everything, from the cafeteria to how a college works and what the different programs are.”
Some of the students arrive earlier in the day, eating breakfast at Hawks Point, the Northeast cafeteria. The later arriving students also visited Hawks Point, but to eat lunch at the cafeteria.
The students each attended three sessions, where they participated in hand-on activities and learned about various pathways.
Before the event, the students fill out forms to show what sessions they were interested in attending. Next, Northeast officials tried to get as many students as possible into each of the 30-minute sessions, depending on availability. Some of the sessions that last longer are double sessions, such as vet tech, one of the biology sessions and more.
“I’d like to credit Dave Heidt (Chemistry, Physics instructor), who does an amazing job putting all the students together and figuring out all the sessions. He’s the mastermind behind it, spending many long nights organizing it,” Miller said. “We’ve tried to automate it but it’s not something a computer brain can do. We need a human brain.”
The sessions included such things as going to a theater session and taking part in an acting exercise, going to an anatomy session and dissecting a cow’s eye, programming a robot to do a task or flying a drone through obstacles.
It takes dozens of volunteers to show students around campus, and about 50 faculty members to present information on careers, including a hands-on activity to make it more interesting for the students.
Some of the careers that were explored were nursing, physical therapists, paramedics, history, acting, robotics, construction, plumbers, daycare, diesel tech, acting, utility line, welding, automotive technology, business and more.
While the day benefits Northeast and the students who attend, it also helps the schools wo send students because it helps them with curriculum planning. They learn more about the subjects that are needed in high school, so the freshmen students can plan their schedules for certain career paths.
Mini excavator
Students who took part in the Ninth Grade Career Day at Northeast Community College got to take part in hands-on activities, such as removing a basketball from a cone with a mini-excavator and bringing it in the backhoe to a trash can to unload it. (Northeast Community College)
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