On Dec. 13, Smoky Hill had a job fair where students were given the opportunity to find a job they may be interested in.
“We started the job fair, three years ago. We do it in partnership with Arapahoe Douglas Workforce Center, they’re the Workforce Center for our county and we partner with them because they’re the ones that then get all the employers to come here,” Craig Quintana, Post Grad Coordinator, said. “So we offer a job fair every December for the last three years and then we offer one in May right before summer break,”
The school created the job fair with the aim of centering student job opportunities in a singular and, more importantly, accessible location so students can find something they’d like to work in all in one place.
“We had Canes Chicken, UPS, Amazon, the Denver mint, Aurora Park Recreational Center her,” Quintana said. “Were just a few then we also had the Cherry Creek early childhood center, who hires kids to work at the elementary for the before and after care,”
The job fair had a bunch of opportunities for students to find a job they can work at.
“I saw like a lot of different opportunities and like a lot of different jobs that could help people in high school and like, help people that are like planning to go to college and stuff like that,” said Val Sermantez (10).
Many students believe that theses jobs can greatly affect life after high school.
When asked what caught her attention the most from the job fair, Sermantez said, “Honestly, I’m kind of into the JC style salon Academy. So something like cosmetology,”
But for some students the job fair has not come with the opportunities it promised.
“I feel like none of the jobs are there are like really something that I would look for because a lot of it is like, oh, like, here, you could be a FedEx person. But that also means oh, you have to be this age and you have to be able to drive and stuff like that. Or it’s like, oh, you could work out like, I don’t know like you could sign up to be in the military or something like that. And that’s not really what I’m looking for. So like a lot of it is kind of just like, not interesting to me,” said Delilah Rodriquez (10).
Many of these jobs come with extensive restrictions which may limit the chance to get work.
“I think it depends also, because like some of the jobs have age limits to the point where it’s like, you can only work or if you’re 17,” Rodriguez said. “It’s like okay, well everybody that’s like 14, 15 and 16 Like, you can’t get a job there. So it’s like, okay, next table, you know what I mean? And like, it really depends what you’re looking for and like the commitment that you want to make to it. So, yeah.”
The students also feels as if theses jobs are limited for a certain group of students.
“Kids who don’t have a state ID can get a work permit from the counseling office they can print a work permit and that’s used to verify age. We’ve also started in pot we’ve also started inviting all the military branches to participate in the job fair because that may be a potential pathway for students,” said Quintana.
The school has made sure everyone can find a job they would participate in.
“Well, it could help students like see what they want to do like after school and like, help them to like start like from scratch. So yeah, I just think it’s like a good thing for everybody,” said Sermantez.
Theses jobs can help students find something they would like to do after school.
“I think whether you’re going to a four year college or to a two year college applying for a scholarship, you know, people want to see that you have work experience because oftentimes work experience relates to having better time management showing that you can be responsible,” Quintana said. “So yeah, the experiences kids gain from having a job are invaluable and it’s good for students to start having a job at a young age,”
Having a job in high school can be important in showing valuable qualities like time management and responsibility, making it helpful for students to start working at a young age.
“So a month ago at works so Arapahoe Douglas County Workforce Center is also known as AD Works. They were here doing resume workshops. With our students and teaching them how to write a resume so that they could apply for a job. And then two weeks ago, they were back working with students on interview workshops so that teaching kids how to interview for a job because that’s all part of the same process,” Quintana said.
It’s important to prepare for all aspects of the job application process.
“Something that I can do where I can have my own schedule and not like be required to work like it should be like a part time thing so I can still focus on like, spending time with my family and stuff like that,” said Rodriquez.
A large portion of students look for a part time job that is flexible for their schedule. So she can spend time with her family while maintaining a job at the same time.
