On Wednesday, January 25, 2023, Edgewood High School conducted the EHS Annual Career Day & Adulting 101 event and it was a HUGE success. Sixty two outside presenters along with twelve Edgewood ISD staff members conducted sessions covering everything from entrepreneurship to how to sew a button on a shirt. Local business leaders and visitors from as far away as San Marcos participated to help Edgewood students make connections between current class offerings and their future career choices.
In the afternoon, Senior and Junior students had the opportunity to attend a Career Fair in the gymnasium. Students were given an hour to travel through the gym and speak with visitors about future options. There were over 40 tables in the gymnasium with colleges, military, and career paths represented. Students had the time to personally interact with any of these that they chose asking questions and visiting to further explore life beyond high school
Some of the entities represented in the Career Fair and the morning sessions are listed below:
The United States Air Force
The United States Navy
The United States Army National Guard
Trinity Valley Community College
The University of Texas at Tyler
Texas A&M at Commerce,
Northeast Texas Community College
Texas State Technical College, Waco
Campos Engineering
Elaine Fabbri, ReMax Real Estate
Holly Randolph, Bulldog Pharmacy
Peoples Taxidermy
Legacy Ag Credit
H&W Pool Service
Texas State Game Warden
Green Lake Nursery
Dr. Robert Cooper, Family Medicine
Speech Pathology, Tiffany Dunn & Kodi Jackson
Texas Workforce Commission
Buck Van Trease, Van Zandt Animal Clinic
BNSF Railway
Tyler Police Department
Edgewood Fire Department
Trinity Mother Frances Flight for Life
PHCC North Texas
Magnolia Dental
Bees Knees and Bubble Tees
BBQ and a Prayer
American National Bank
Turf Pro Landscaping
Deen Kubota
TLP Electric
David Bledsoe
1st State Bank, Ben Wheeler
Financial Advisor, Wes Cooper
Nathan Bullard, Entrepreneurship
CBJ Custom Apparel
Rick Johns, State Farm
Cheree Neil, JCPenney Buyer
Mike Hales, Print Technology
Haley Burton, LVN
Jamie Carlisle, Lab Research Scientist
Taylor Made Smiles
Joel Gangross, Texas Spine and Joint Sports Medicine
Texas DPS
EISD Police Department
Wills Point ISD Chief of Police, T Scharfenberg
Justin King, Kaufman County Assistant Criminal District Attorney
Amber’s Pet Parlor
John Spence, Aviation Mechanics
Jim Crowley, Fedex 747 Freight Pilot
Lori Tolar, Director of Technology and Communications
Bison Creek Surveying
Rick Harris
And the list goes on and on!!!!
Please note that this list is not all-inclusive! There are so many people that participated in this event and Edgewood ISD would like to extend a tremendous thank you to all of you that made the event possible. If you have been around Edgewood for any length of time, you will notice several alumni names giving back to the community in which they grew up and that is just a small part of what makes Edgewood such an amazing place.
To end out an amazing day, students in grades 8-12 were treated to an amazing keynote speaker. The keynote address was also from an alumni! Mr. Jeff Sprague, 1999 graduate of Edgewood High School, has had the opportunity to venture into many businesses that have been very successful throughout his life. His favorite occupation is his current career choice. He is a professional fisher. He sacrificed his work day to spend time sharing with Edgewood students about knowledge and skills they are learning now that they will use in their future careers.
Mitsy Swift, coordinator of the event, stated, “Two things stand out in my mind about this day. One is the collective effort that is made by all the high school staff, 8th grade teachers, and administrators to ensure speakers and students have a successful day. Without this cooperative effort, this day wouldn’t be possible nor successful. The second thing is witnessing our students in the career fair, engaged with other adults they don’t know, carrying on conversation about them or their career and the possibilities of employment or the path it takes to attain their level of training or education for the position they have. This is a great opportunity for them and they took full advantage of it.”
Here are some other references for the day,
“My favorite part was where we got to talk to all the different career people. They were very knowledgeable and I found what I wanted to do.” - B Bannister, Junior
“My favorite part was the Pharmacist because we got to make medicine.” - H Erwin, Freshman
“My Favorite part was the Railroad session. There was a cool presentation and I learned the most in that session” - M Wright, Freshman
“My favorite part was the electrician because I got to build a 3 way circuit.” - B Paniagua, Sophomore
“My favorite part was the x-ray technician because I wanna be one when I'm older and I learned a lot about it. I also liked how she talked about ultrasound tech. I wanna go for either one when I'm older.” - C Baker, 8th Grade
“My favorite part was the one in the gym.. it was all good, and thank everyone for helping me and all of the other students try and find a way after high school.” - J Harpole, Junior
“My favorite part was Professionalism because we got to discover our strengths.” - H Forest, Junior
A couple of High School teachers chimed in on their thoughts for the day also, Mrs. Nikki Tyndell, High School Spanish teacher said, “Students learned a lot about their prospective careers. Some learned that they have some major changes they need to make in their studies, while others realized they may need to rethink what they might want to do. Overall, I think it was very eye opening for most of our students and they have a better understanding of what they need to do to prepare themselves for the career path that they want to pursue.”
World History teacher and Coach, Nathan Goetz, added this, “I truly thought career day was a huge success for all the students. I had the game warden in my classroom and every single kid was engaged and very intrigued with what he had to say. I may or may not have asked more questions than the kids but who's counting. At basketball practice that afternoon I did ask some Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors that I hadn't seen all day how they liked it, knowing I was asking 16-18 year old young men that question I was expecting the normal responses; but all of their responses were that they actually enjoyed and got something out of it. Making them enjoy every second is impossible but they said they really liked the financial and life things they got to hear about during the morning sessions.”
Edgewood High School really works hard on college, career and military readiness on a daily basis, but this annual event has grown yearly and this year was amazing!! Again, thank you to EVERYONE that was involved from the outside entities to every single staff member that contributed. And kudos again to Mrs. Mitsy Swift for coordinating this event.