By Raelynn Harris ’25
Derby High School welcomed a variety of participants for the most recent career fair that happened on April 27, 2023 in the gymnasium organized by DHS’s school counselors.
The career fair was set up in the gymnasium with twenty-one tables, which included education; health, wellness, & medical; science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing (STEM) / trade school; law; emergency response; business, communication & entrepreneurship; and military. Students were given questions to inquire about the multiple careers, including what skills are needed in the career field and what a typical day at work is like.
Jennifer Ostrosky, DHS guidance counselor, said the purpose of the career fair is “so that students can be exposed to all different careers. Sometimes we’re used to what our mom does, or our dad, or our aunt, uncle, family, people in our life, and so if we’re not exposed to it, we really don’t know all of the career opportunities out there.” Ostrosky played a key role in organizing DHS’s career fair this year and in years past.
DHS’s career fairs started in 2020 during COVID. It started with Ostrosky gathering people on her own, like friends of hers and people within the community. Ostrosky also reached out to her colleagues at Derby High School to see if they knew anybody that could be a part of the panel in certain careers: “We wanted to make sure that we had some people in the medical field, and law, STEM, and so forth, so we just wanted to make sure that we were able to get somebody from, all different areas.”
The process of building up a career fair took several months, but Ostrosky said, “After that, we got a list of contacts, people who were looking to come back the next year, so it kinda got easier as the years went on because we had people already that were committed to it, who had done it with us the year prior, and then we just continued to reach out to new people every year, so it’s less time now then it was when we first started.” The scheduling of the career fair was rounds of trials and errors, “but now we have that directory, that you got, that we sent out to everybody, we pretty much use that now every year, and so we just make changes to it if there’s new people, and we follow now the same schedule. So now it’s much smoother and it’s faster, but the first time putting it together it did take us a while, a couple of trials and errors, just changing schedules, seeing what worked best.”
Ostrosky thinks that students should consider future careers early on, especially starting in middle school and high school, and younger: “ I also believe that all students should be exposed at the elementary level, so when I worked in the elementary school, I did a lot of lessons in the classroom that focused around careers and that was with even in the kindergarten class so I think that soon it’s important for them to start learning about all the opportunities out there.”
Ostroksy’s further explained goals in organizing career fairs include wanting students to see the possibilities of all different career opportunities: “So we have our college fair and you guys were seeing colleges; but I wanted you to see exactly specific careers and learn about them so you can learn: hey this is something I might be interested in, and when you go ahead and do some college searches, you might look for a program in nursing if there was a nurse at the career fair and you found that to be really interesting so it gave students the ability, the opportunity to learn about various careers.”
Ostrosky wants students to learn their own opinions about different fields, whether they want to avoid or see a future in them: “Hopefully it will prompt them to start researching more into that particular career, so I guess taking away from it, what they’re finding interesting and what they know that they do not want to pursue.”
Ostrosky believes the career fair was also helpful for students that have a set mindset: “Sometimes we are completely set on a career path, and all of a sudden we are exposed to one we’ve never knew of before existed, and then all of a sudden that sparks our interest, so I do think that it was beneficial for them even if they did already have a career path.”
Ostrosky achieved her goal of exposing students to different careers even if they did have a set mindset; there were groups of students gathered around each table enthusiastically listening and asking questions provided. Students found the questions helpful in starting a conversation about the table’s explanations of their careers. Most students already had a solid idea of what they wanted to be, and visiting certain participants at the career fair solidified their choices.
Andrea’le Mitchell ‘23 and Kyle Batkis ‘23, for example, both have a solid idea of what they want to be already. Mitchell ‘23, for example, said having the career fair, “gave me a little bit more information.” Batkis ‘23 also had the same sentiment: “I already knew what I wanted to do, but going around, it’s kinda cool to see all the different stuff, so I’d say definitely the baking one and the physical therapy was pretty intriguing.”
The career fair sparked an interest in other students. Leah Ludington ‘23, Genna Chevarella ‘23, and Hallie Beauton ‘25 became interested in jobs involved with helping people and the community. Ludington ‘23 already had thoughts of a specific career: “The Derby Police Department, because I want to be a detective, I’ve always wanted to, and I’ve been thinking about it the past couple of years.” Chevarella has an interest in helping younger children in the community: “Early education because I want to be either a preschool teacher or childcare worker.” Beauton also has an interest in helping the community: “EMT, I know people who did it but I never really knew a lot of it in detail and they really told me about it in detail and gave me a lot of connections that I can have.”
Students gained a lot of information and outlooks after the career fair, and the participants from a range of different tables aided in that.
The career fair guests were enthusiastic about coming to DHS to participate in the career fair and hope students have learned a lot after interacting with them.
Inquisitive, positive, and curious; that’s what Tischa Garcia wants students to be after learning about TEAM. Garcia works at TEAM, Inc. under the participant label of business, communication, and entrepreneurship. Garcia explains that TEAM is a non-profit agency that assists and helps the Valley: “For example, apply for SNAP, cash assist, and Husky, job search, we do referrals, we have an early learning program too, and if a family needs childcare, they can call us too. We have an energy assistance department, we assist clients in the Valley to pay the gas bills, services, light bills, and anything a client needs, we try to help them.”
TEAM sent representatives to DHS to let people in the area and students know what TEAM has to offer and why people like Garcia went into the field of human services. “We came to help shed some light on that.” Garcia thinks it’s important that students in ninth grade or sooner start thinking about their careers if there is an idea, “and it’s okay to change if you start out wanting to do something then you decide to change career, nothing wrong with that. As much experience as you can get is so vital to make those decisions.”
Fay Godbolt is the director of community development and non-credit programs at Naugatuck Valley Community College, and she was under the participant label of education. Godbolt came to DHS because of her interest in being a part of the career fair and wanting to share information about Naugatuck Valley. Godbolt thinks students should start thinking about their career as soon as they get to high school or before then, “just start thinking, it doesn’t mean you know for sure but just start thinking about it.” Godbolt wants students to start thinking about what it is they want to do when they graduate when they finish high school after they learn about what she does and represents, “and maybe there’s a program that they may be interested in, I want them to know that they have options, whether it’s at Naugatuck Valley or wherever they decide, it’s up to them but they have a choice.”
Candy Lebel is a second-grade elementary school teacher, and she was under the participant label of education. Lebel wants students to react after reflecting on the results of her career as a teacher on them after they talk to her or another teacher and they say, ‘I remember when I was in second grade, and we made group plans, or we made a project and I still remember it,’ and I say to them, ‘Well, I hope you walk away thinking to yourself, well I have good memories of my teacher, someday I want to be somebodies good memory.”
Lebel has taught second grade for twenty-one years in Derby: “For me, I believe that I’ve been a big part of people’s lives and I will know when I’m done with my career that I’ve touched a lot of people’s lives and that I’ve gotten a lot of fulfillment out of that and I truly do care about all of the kids and when I see them especially when I come up here and I see kids or when I see kids that have graduated and they tell me, ‘I’m a doctor now, I’m a lawyer, or even I work at Cumberland Farms’, and they say ‘I remember when I was in second grade and I loved you so much,’ and my heart gets fuller every time, I’m compassionate about it.”
Lebel came to DHS because of what she thinks of her career: “I believe that the job that I have, the career that I have is a meaningful, fulfilling career, and I think in today’s society a lot of people don’t think teaching is a great job anymore or that education isn’t a job, and I don’t believe that’s true, I believe that teaching is still one of the best jobs out there.”
Lebel thinks students should start thinking of their career when they’re passionate, “and for some people, I know in second grade I have little kids in my classroom that will say, ‘I know I want to be a doctor when I grow up, and I want to be a veterinarian’, and they feel passionate about it by the time they’re seven, and some people don’t find their passion until they’re twenty and they take a gap year, so I don’t think there’s a specific age, I think it’s when you feel the passion for something, you’ll know when it’s time.”
DHS students enjoyed having a career fair, whether it sparked or confirmed an interest in a possible future career.
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