Knowing what career you want to explore, determining what it takes to achieve that career, and even knowing what careers you don’t want in life —those are the goals of the Newcastle Public Schools’ Career Expo, held Thursday, January 25 at the high school.
Racer Connect Internship Coordinator Nikki Gayler said there are many reasons for having the first ever Career Expo at NHS, but the main one is to help students focus on a career pathway.
A requirement by the Oklahoma State Department of Education for Oklahoma schools is an Individual Career Academic Plan, or ICAP. According to OSDE, an ICAP is a way for students to understand their own interests, their strengths, their values and their learning styles, all while creating a vision for the future. Students develop individual goals, and prepare a plan for achieving their vision and goals.
The Career Expo is another tool to help Newcastle students when creating their ICAP.
Gayler said each year at Newcastle, the students are required to create an online digital planner to aid them in determining what they all do after high school. Gayler said Newcastle students either take elective classes at the high school which line up with their career pathway, they take concurrent classes, or they take part in an internship.
Gayler said because Newcastle is moving towards becoming a Career Pathway Focused High School, these choices allow the students to focus on what they want to do with a career, and avoid what they don’t want to do.
The Career Expo provided a day dedicated to career fields. It was divided up so that students could pick six sessions that they wanted to attend.
Gayler said, “It was a great way to get all the kids involved, and the event went off flawlessly — once the kids found out what it was all about.”
Gayler added that most schools only have Career Expos at night, or during one class during the school day.
“We had 47 different careers represented, and the majority of the school body showed up that day,” Gayler said.
She said the community showed up for the students, as well, and the Career Fair had a great response. Gayler said she knows it is difficult for people to take off work and spend the whole day with the students, nonetheless Newcastle responded.
Some of the businesses attending included B&H Construction, Scissortail Pediatrics, KFOR Channel 4 Storm Chasers, all branches of the City of Newcastle — police, fire, emergency services, and community development — plumbers, pipe fitters, sheetmetal workers, four of Oklahoma’s Indian tribes, and five different branches of the military.
Gayler said the students and teachers felt like the Career Expo was well-rounded, but they also believe there is room to grow the event. A post-event survey taken by students and teachers showed that they would like attendance from additional employees in the medical field, those serving in the automotive industry such as mechanics, the culinary arts, and cyber security.
Gayler said as a follow up to the Career Expo, Newcastle High School is planning a college fair from 9:40 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 28. The fair will be split into hour segments so that various classes will be able to attend. Gayler said they already have 20 institutions who have said they’ll be in attendance, and she added that they plan on having about 40-50 total.
Gayler said, “The intent of the college fair is to help students know what they need to do to get into either a twoyear or a four-year institution, and whether they need to take concurrent classes.”
She said Newcastle has a lot of seniors who will go to college and already have their freshman year completed.
In fact, she said there are some Newcastle seniors who will have both their freshman and sophomore years completed.
The Career Expo, and now the college fair, are tools Newcastle students can use to not only create their career pathways, but also to shorten the time necessary to achieve career goals.
Gayler said the school expects to grow the Expo in coming years and more fully integrate it to help students achieve an understanding of what they want and need.
