BRProud
BATON ROUGE, La. — More than 600 Baton Rouge students were offered a glimpse into their futures during Tuesday’s Career Immersive Experience.
The event was organized by the combined efforts of LSU, EBR Schools and the Baton Rouge Area Chamber.
During the program, students were provided with a hands-on look into high-paying jobs that are currently in demand.
Some of the students who attended said they’re still weighing their options when it comes to career paths. This is what Elijah Foreman, a junior at West Feliciana High School, implied when he told BRProud, “Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out what I want to do in the future.”
Others, like Aniaya Cage, said they have a pretty good idea of which careers they’d like to pursue. Cage said, “I think I am going to go into nursing.”
Just like Foreman and Cage, the hundreds of students who attended the program learned about all sorts of jobs. They’re now able to use this knowledge to write the next chapters in their lives.
Cage, a junior at West Feliciana High School and the youngest of three, is future-focused. She said it’s her goal to become the first nurse in her family.
“I want to be a nurse because I want to get deep with people,” Cage said. “I want to get close to them, and I want to help them in any way I can.”
Until today, Cage said she thought the only way she’d be able to reach this goal would involve earning grades high enough to score a scholarship to a four-year university.
But during Tuesday’s event, Cage learned she has additional options.
This sort of knowledge is exactly what EBR Schools and Baton Rouge Area Chamber hope to provide. During the program, students benefited from hands-on experiences with more than 40 different careers.
Sito Narcisse, superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish School System commented on the purpose of the program, saying, “Not only on getting kids to get into pathways early but give them career exposure and also help them continue to connect. And we start doing things like giving them internships at $15 an hour, you know, keeping kids on track.”
Some of the young attendees learned about jobs that are available in the performing arts arena while others were fascinated by information on what it takes to become an EMT. Still others were drawn to media studies.
Jayden Pelk, a senior at West Feliciana High School was one such student. Pelk credited the program with making his career-related dreams more real. Pelk said it, “Made it a lot more of a reality for me. They let me know that I’m not that far away from it, and that I can do it is really possible.”
Organizers say they plan to roll out similar career fairs in the future.