Moorpark College’s Career and Transfer Center welcomed students to its annual Career Week from March 3-5. This year’s Career Week offered a full spectrum of events for college, high school and middle school students to connect with potential employers and explore different career paths.
The main event of Career Week for Moorpark College students was the Career and Internship Expo on March 3. Barrett Kocher, a 20 year-old student volunteer for the Career Transfer Center booth, elaborated on the purpose of the Career Expo.
“Getting a job, getting an internship, moving forward is kind of a daunting task,” Kocher said.
Further explaining that the Career Transfer Center provides resources students need to move forward.
Representatives from the Institute for Applied Behavior Analysis, Conejo Recreation and Park District, Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Los Angeles Police Department were just some of the hiring employers. The representatives were searching for motivated students who were ready to begin entry level positions.
“Ninety percent of our employees are college students,” Tim Smith said, Conejo Recreation and Park district coordinator. “This is the exact right demographic we’re looking for.”
Los Angeles Police Department representative, Deputy Weber, provided further insight on why employers are seeking out college students.
“We like college students because college students obviously already have the discipline of waking up, showing up to class,” Weber said. “As of next year, we will only hire applicants that have an associate’s degree or above.”
The next event was Middle School Health Careers Day on Wednesday, March 4 from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Local middle schools came to campus for a tour of Moorpark College’s health-related programs.
The middle school students were guided around campus and participated in presentations on subjects like Biotechnology, Health Fitness and the Emergency Medical Technician certification program.
John Everlove, the EMT certification program director and coordinator, helped middle school students recognize the career opportunities associated with the program. According to Everlove, the EMT program leads to becoming a paramedic, search and rescue member, teacher and more.
“The EMT program is a great place to start because we teach you the first steps in medicine,” Everlove said.
The last event of Career Week was Career Education Day for high school students on Thursday, March 5. According to Celine Park, project specialist at Moorpark College, there were over 150 students from 11 different high schools on campus for Career Education Day.
A wide array of Moorpark College’s departments conducted demonstrations and high school students were given the chance to sign up and explore three different fields they may be interested in.
The demonstrations allowed high school students a preview into different college majors as they are currently in the process of deciding what to study after graduation. Paige Vanoordt and Libby Kellogg, two second-year students part of the EATM program, talked about their experiences with the EATM program and gave an animal training demonstration with a turkey vulture named Puppy.
“I didn’t really know that you got to work with everything, but I’ve got to work with primates, birds, big cats like tigers, and domestic animals like dogs and donkeys too,” Vanoordt said. “Hopefully once I graduate, I’ll get to work with primates or birds like Puppy.”
For students who were considering possible future careers, or are looking for a summer job, Career Week provided a great opportunity for students to get started.
