Volume 17, Number 1, Fall 2006

Youth “Touch the Future” During 4-H Exploration Days

Laura Allen

The Touch the Future Career Fair at Exploration Days was modeled after the Copper Country Touch the Future program—with great success.

The 4-H Personal Development Team members offered youth the opportunity to participate in a career fair as part of a second-half Exploration Days session called the “Touch the Future Career Fair.” Twenty-seven youth from 17 counties participated. Half of the youth who completed the evaluation form checked “No” to the question, “Was this session what you expected it to be?” They clarified by stating they “thought it would be boring but it turned out to be lots of fun.”

The setting was MSU’s Lear Career Services Center, in the Eli Broad College of Business. The Lear Center is beautiful with a modern corporate décor, thanks to generous donors. Instead of learning in a traditional classroom, youth participated comfortably in “The Place,” a corporate-style business lounge. Pepa Carlson, Lear Center career programs manager, welcomed the youth and complimented them for investing their time in career exploration.

Though the setting was truly comfy, youth worked through a busy agenda, learning tips for completing a job application and resume text from Macomb County Extension educator Kathy Jamieson. Ron Morley of the Clare-Gladwin RESD concluded the first day with informational (career fair) interviewing practice and led the group in a lively business handshake activity that taught the importance of first impressions in the world of work.

The second day, participants used a list of career fair interviewing questions and moved room-to-room in groups of two, interviewing professionals from human medicine, science, agriculture and natural resources, human services, veterinary medicine, communications, business, hospitality and information technology. The youth got comfortable quickly, adding their own unique questions. One teen said, “It helped me see that I need to work hard—now, in high school—to get where I want to for life.”

The Personal Development Team members and professionals could tell by the smiling faces and the teens’ eagerness to move to the next career pathway that our youth truly touched the future through their career fair experience. One teen commented in the evaluation, “I loved this session. To be honest, I was a little scared at first, but I quickly felt comfortable and learned a lot. My favorite thing was meeting almost one-on-one with very professional and nice people who motivated me and guided me in a good direction.”

To implement a Touch the Future Career Fair in your community, go to the 4-H website (http://web1.msue.msu.edu/msue/cyf/youth/index.html) and click on Careers where the activities, handouts and PowerPoint presentations are all available. For more information, contact Laura Allen, Michigan 4-H Youth Development’s career education coordinator, at (517) 432-7632 or lacourse@anr.msu.edu.