Hundreds of students explore career choices at UMF fair
Presenters focused on post-secondary education and professional development.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan, said Gary Perlson.

On Tuesday, 700 local high school students got a start on their plans and their futures at the sixth annual Western Maine Career Fair at the University of Maine at Farmington.

About 50 professionals representing a variety of fields from law to logging spoke to students from Rangeley Lakes Regional School, Mount Blue High School, Mount Abram High School, Livermore Falls High School, Jay High School and Madison High School about the hardships and successes on the career path.

Presenters were asked to focus especially on what they did for post-secondary education and for continued professional development.

Perlson, a career coordinator in SAD 58 for the Pathway Partners program and one of three career fair organizers, said Tuesday’s event supports the mission of linking aspirations to a plan, a concept pushed by the MELMAC Education Foundation that was backed with $1.1 million in grants to Maine schools in September.

Part of the grant money received by area schools from MELMAC even went toward putting on the career fair.

Perlson said the beauty of the event is the collaboration not only between the six schools but between the community members who volunteer to speak about their personal and professional lives.

Other key organizers for Western Maine Career Fair included Betsy O’Donal from SAD 9 and Greg Swenson from Livermore Falls.

“If you aren’t helping a kid, you’re not helping the future,” Perlson said.

Usually, students from the different schools only see each other at competitions, like basketball games, Perlson said. The career fair gives them a different type of interaction. While in the past, fair attendees were juniors and seniors, the crowd is getting noticeably younger.

Perlson brought only ninth-graders from Mount Abram, explaining that in evaluations, his students in the past said the fair would be more helpful to them when they were younger.

The career fair isn’t all they are doing as they forage ahead toward their futures. Other Mount Abram students will visit Bates College and Central Maine Community College soon and some older students will job shadow members of their community.

“The career fair is a vital piece of preparing for the future,” Perlson said. “Today was a chance to network. Do we expect everyone to leave here today knowing what they want to do? No. It’s just a step in the journey.”

Keynote speakers for the day included Mount Blue High School principal Greg Potter and University of Maine at Augusta president Dr. Charles M. Lyons.

Lyons, himself a graduate of Madison High School, urged students to find a mentor and to take their schooling seriously.

Education used to be a luxury, he explained. Now it is a necessity.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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