Career Day gets middle schoolers thinking about their futures

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer
    DOVER-FOXCROFT — SeDoMoCha Middle School seventh- and eighth-graders had the opportunity to hear from over two dozen speakers, who told them about what they do for a living and how they arrived to where they are from their school days during Career Day on May 6.

    Guidance Counselor Jennifer Clark said all the students in grades 7-8 would spend the first half of the day on May 6 attending several half-hour sessions with speakers from careers they are interested in. She said the Career Day is held every other year, enabling all middle school students a chance to take part, and in 2013 the list of speakers had some variation from the event two years prior.
    “I did a survey of most of the seventh- and eighth-graders to get a big list and then I narrowed it down,” Clark said as she worked to line up the various speakers as well as representatives from both Husson University and Eastern Maine Community College. The students then devised 1-10 rankings of their top choices of presentations and their schedules were made.
    “My goal is you learn something about a career,” Clark said about the day’s basic purpose. These facts could be what the job entails and how the speaker got to their current position. “There’s point A to point B and then there’s different ways to get there,” she said, saying it would be beneficial for the students to hear about the different paths from school to job. “One speaker said it is interesting to hear how he got there, and that’s what I want the students to hear.”
    

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
    CHECKING OUT WILL’S SHOP ‘N SAVE — Pre-kindergarten students at SeDoMoCha Elementary in Dover-Foxcroft have been learning about farms and where the food they eat comes from. The young students got to see part of the process of how food gets to the table during a field trip on May 10 to Will’s Shop ‘n Save in Dover-Foxcroft where owner Will Wedge and Store Manager Daniel Villone explained different departments of the store. The nearly 20 pre-K students making up the program’s afternoon session, who were joined by their two teachers and several parents, had the opportunity to scan items at the cash registers near the end of their visit.
     Another topic of conversation was the types of education required for the positions. “Some of the speakers will talk about the different degrees they can get, to help get the students motivated,” Clark said. She said the college speakers touched upon how the post-secondary educational offerings are often different than middle school, such as students not being in class from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. five days a week.
    Many of the Career Day presenters live and work in the area, with some of them being current parents and others having children who attended SeDoMoCha Middle School in the past. A few of the speakers work in the school building, with some talking about their professions there and others discussing present and past jobs outside the SeDoMoCha walls.
    “Hopefully the students will see them in a different light,” Clark said as Bob Hartford is also a deejay, Audrey Noether is a professional musician in addition to being a teacher and Assistant Principal Matt Lokken spoke about being a biologist and a ski instructor.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
    CRUSTACEAN SHOW AND TELL — Will’s Shop ‘n Save Store Manager Daniel Villone shows SeDoMoCha pre-K students a lobster from the store’s tank during a tour of the store on May 10. If the pupils wanted they could touch the hard shell of the lobster, as Villone explained facts about the species such as its ability to re-grow claws.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
    EAT LIKE A MONKEY — Will’s Shop ‘n Save owner Will Wedge told the SeDoMoCha pre-K students that monkeys will peel a banana from the bottom before eating the fruit, which he said is among the most nutritious items found at the Dover-Foxcroft store.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
    MEETING THE MEAT —  A push down on the pedal puts hamburger through the grinder, as the pre-K students learned while they visited the meat department at Will’s Shop ‘n Save in Dover-Foxcroft.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom
    BANANA BREAK BEFORE THEY SPILT — Children in the afternoon session of the pre-kindergarten program at SeDoMoCha Elementary had the opportunity to enjoy a healthy snack following their tour of Will’s Shop ‘n Save in Dover-Foxcroft, where they learned about different departments of the grocery store and how food goes from farms to their plates. Owner Will Wedge showed the students the secret location where the ice cream is kept out back, and told them the temperature in the cooler is 10 degrees below zero.