Career Expo Informs Future Workforce

Culpeper Star Exponent

Business Monday

Jim Charapich

April 1, 2013

The Business Community teamed up with the Culpeper County Schools again on Friday and held a Career Expo for the 8th Grade students of the Culpeper County School System. The students are at a critical time in their career choices in 8th grade. High School course selections that are being made now will set the stage for post high school opportunities. It is important for students to have input about career opportunities at this stage.

The Business Community in Culpeper is very interested in offering their support to our students. We had 30 businesses / professions participate in the Career Expo. The professionals ranged from Construction and Banking to Law Enforcement and Space Aviation. We have many resources in Culpeper which lend themselves to such admirable investments in our future leaders. The scale of our community really works for us in this regard. We could not accomplish this as effectively if we were spread out with a dozen middle schools. Having two middle schools in close proximity makes this possible. It is great when we are able to leverage our size for better results than larger metro areas could achieve.

The school administration demonstrated a great deal of skill in developing this program as well. The logistics of coordinating students to be at a specific table / professional interest at a specific time is complex. It is further impressive that many of the students were taking notes and attentive in their questions to the professionals. In fact, one parent shared that her daughter was intent on having a job offer during the expo. This is quite ambitious for a 13 year old. We are fortunate that the school administrators and the business community are able to work closely together. Students will need to be prepared for the workforce when they graduate. Our businesses are able to give our students an advantage in securing job opportunities.

In addition to thanking the talented school administrators, I would like to thank the businesses that participated. Some of the businesses were off on Friday due to the Easter Holiday. They choose to help out voluntarily on their personal time. I would like to thank the following businesses for investing in our students on Friday: Exit Cornerstone Realty, Fantastic Sams Salon, Belk Department Stores, StellarOne Bank,Data Research Group Corporation, Polaris - Joe Edwards, Culpeper Regional Health System,  Shannon Butler Dentistry, Culpeper County Schools, Germanna Community College, Verizon Terremark, Studio C Photography, K Art and Design, Culpeper Media Network, Culpeper Extention Office, Continental Automotive, Integrity Automotive, Euro Composites, Rappahannock Electric, Town of Culpeper Wastewater, Town of Culpeper Public Works, Town of Culpeper Information Technology, US Military, Orange Volunteer Fire Department, Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office, Little Fork Volunteer Fire Department, and Katherine Charapich Esquire PLLC.
It is evident that our School Board, School Administration, and our educators are passionate about the education of our students. Given the opportunity, as business, It is a privilege to walk in the shoes of our educators for a few hours. Educating our students is a community effort.