Grant Career Center Hosts Career Exploration Days
For the fifth year, Grant Career Center held its annual Girls & Goggles and Guys & Gears career exploration days, where sixth grade girls and boys from Clermont County Schools got a taste of non-traditional career options. From welding to learning about oil changes, these girls learned they, too, can do this, and do it well. “I see my dad all the time like weld, and I'm so excited to see what it is,” sixth grader Chloe Ballard said. “In one of our industrial classes, we have two females that want to be welders. There are some welders out there that are women, and they are good welders, a lot better than I am,” a current Grant Career student said.
The career exploration days are all about helping young people expand their career possibilities. “For every career path that's out there, the state designates a gender more typically enters into that field, right? So, there's more men in construction. And in agriculture programs, there are typically more men, so it would be non-traditional for a female to enter an agricultural program, which Veterinary Sciences is an agricultural program,” Superintendent Mike Parry said. “So, when we get a bunch of females who are excited about heading into that pathway, it is a positive for that industry to create more diversity.” The career exploration days introduces students at a young age to work options that may not be as traditional. “We know from our current students that the majority of them, more than 60% of them, make the decision to come to a career center before their high school career starts. So, they're deciding in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade that this is the right pathway towards their future goals,” Parry said. So, when young girls and boys get this hands-on experience, it helps opens their eyes to a career they may have otherwise never thought to go into.
