8th Grade Day - Another Successful Event!
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Kankakee Area Reg. Vocational Education System teamed up with local businesses and the Kankakee Area Career Center to present the annual 8th Grade Career Awareness Program.
Eighth grade may just be the perfect time to really dig in to career exploration. High school is just around the corner for these future workers and their educational path and course selection is important. Having a focus and pathway toward a future most certainly will help shed light on the value of setting educational goals to succeed in their chosen career.
Almost 1,600 reservations were received from area 8th Graders from Will, Kankakee and Iroquois Counties and were given the opportunity to attend.
Every student attended a general business session with Andy Czako, McColly-Bennett Real Estate; Cindy DeGroot, Sojourn/Riverside; JoAnne Keen, Frank’s Appliance and Sleepsource Center; Brian Nelson, Megaplex IT Solutions; and Bill Yohnka, from WKAN AM and City of Kankakee.
These 8th graders also registered for two career-specific breakout sessions they were interested to attend. Every student had their own ticket provided with their selections and session times listed. Their options included meeting and learning from area business leaders from Ravenspring Creative, LLC; CSL Behring; Aqua Illinois; University of Illinois; NECA-IBEW Local 176; Kankakee Fire Department; Illinois State Police, Kankakee Police Department and last but not least, Riverside Medical Center.
If these young men and women are an indication of our future workforce, we are in good shape. According to Matt Kelley from KARVES/KACC, “Students were so respectful, well behaved and, very interested in the information these incredible business professionals had to share.”
"There's no way we can thank these business professionals enough," commented Director, Don Fay. "Year after year, they return to the Hilton Garden Inn to share knowledge and an incredible amount of insight and enthusiasm to help inspire students not only to finish their education, but start to think about what educational path might fit best after high school."