Santa Fe High School hosts annual career fair

ALACHUA – For the second year in a row, Santa Fe High School (SFHS) hosted a career fair in its gym with some of the area’s top employers.

Students of all grades were welcome to attend and learn more about job areas they have interest in. The gym was wall-to-wall booths of everything from military careers to UF health careers and everything in between.

Pamela Gonzales, a counselor at SFHS, said that she consulted different schools in how they set up their career fairs and then adapted and modified their own to better benefit the students of SFHS.

“School counselors have many roles, one being preparing students for college and career readiness,” Gonzales said. “A career fair is a natural piece to this preparation.”

Gonzales said that a career fair benefits high school students in many ways. It not only educates students about different careers and professions as well as introduces them to the largest employers in Alachua, but also shows them what to expect and how to prepare for a job interview and the education level required for different positions.

Gonzales said that she chose businesses targeted towards students of high school age and that would most benefit students who are still exploring different careers as well as students who already have an idea of the profession they are interested in.

Shelby Sapp, a senior at SFHS, said the career fair helps students get a more realistic grasp on what it is they want to do.

“You apply for colleges and think that you’re going to go into the basic fields, but then here you get to meet people and talk to them about the more practical aspects of the job,” Sapp said.

Sapp said she would like to go into the medical field, and that the different health career booths give her an insight to narrow her broad interests.

Josephine Dornbusch, a first year University of Florida veterinary student, along with her German Sheppard Kalis, manned the veterinary booth. Her booth seemed to be one of the most popular, but she said that Kalis was probably the big draw. She said she was representing the UF vet school, but that her booth focused on the veterinary field as a whole.

“I love this sort of thing. I give tours of the college. I love answering questions because when I was in their shoes, I jumped at those opportunities to ask people those questions,” Dornbusch said. “It’s a good source of information and I like to kind of return the favor.”

“It’s an amazing opportunity to help people just figure out what it is they want to do,” she added.

Gonzales believes that the career fair has a great impact on the students who have attended.

“This event is a real-life experience that can’t be created in the classroom,” She said. “Student’s awareness of careers and employers have broadened beyond the knowledge they have from the working adults in their lives.”

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