Sanchez Elementary students in Santa Maria explore job opportunities during career day event
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Hundreds of elementary students at David J. Sanchez Sr. Elementary School in Santa Maria explored future job opportunities during an annual career day event held Friday morning.
"Everything went smoothly," said Sanchez Elementary counselor Gary Crocker. "The students were really engaged. They really enjoyed all the presenters and I think the presenters had a good time as well, but most importantly, the students learned a lot too."
All of the students on campus, from transitional kindergarten (TK) through 6th grade, numbering 670, participated in the event.
"It was really entertaining to see all the careers and all the options that I could have for the future," said student Evelyn Tello. "I really enjoyed the baker because I am learning how to make cookies, and I like art and decorating, so I thought maybe I would like decorating cakes and stuff like that."
Now in its second year, this year's career day featured a dozen local work professionals for the upper grades and a smaller group for the lower grades.
"We have two different career fairs this year," said Crocker. "We have one for the upper grades, so third through sixth grade, and that is where presenters stay in one classroom and the students rotate. We had another career fair in the front of the school for TK through second grade, and that was actually "Careers on Wheels," so we had a UPS van and a truck and a fire engine as well."
Among the occupations featured during the career day was a pediatrician, aerospace engineer, police officer, mechanic, nurse, computer engineer, human resource manager, dancer, graphic designer, baker, biomedical engineer.
"It was nice to see all the careers and opportunities," said student Brianna Aduirre. "I think it's important they do this at school. I learned a lot of things. and it was very nice to see that they were very excited to talk about their passions."
In addition, News Channel's Dave Alley, who serves as the station's community liaison, also took part, and was able to speak to the students about the local television news business.
