![At the bottom of the third inning, the Lions are still scoreless. Rowe stands at home plate, preparing to bat, while Vandenbrink stands off to the side as the next batter up. Despite having the bases loaded, the team was unable to score any runs. “It’s just the beginning of the season. We’re just going to be playing out best by June, [and] that’s where champions are,” Rowe said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_3077-1200x900.jpg)
The Northwest Youth Career Fair is a yearly event hosted in Oregon that displays numerous jobs and careers to juniors and seniors who may not know what they want to do after high school. This event was created 20 years ago and is held at the Oregon Convention Center. This year, the event is for only seniors to attend.
The career fair is run by Portland Workforce Alliance, an agency located in Multnomah County dedicated to giving students career exposure in a variety of different fields. Some of the fields include medical, construction, and computer science.
Mary Hanks, Internship and Workplace Learning Coordinator, has been helping students plan and arrange for upperclassmen to go to the career fair each year since 2015.
“Each company sponsors a table that’s there,” Hanks said. “They’ll have two or three employees from their business and they’ll bring things that you might be able to do hands-on. They all try to bring something hands-on for the students.”
Planning for the career fair begins in October and continues up until the opening date. Planning includes arranging staff, advertising the fair, and more.
“I don’t actually do a lot of active work in the winter months because somebody else is planning the career fair and contacting all of the people that will be there,” Hanks said. “But as we get closer, I have to arrange for staff to attend with us that can’t necessarily leave their classrooms and get marketing out so that [people] know it’s an opportunity.”
The fair provides help to students finding a job where they can ask questions and take business cards to communicate with companies in the future.
“You can learn about things you didn’t even know were jobs,” Hanks said. “So the first thing you can learn and be able to ask questions about ‘What do I need to know’ or ‘What do I need to do to learn more about this career or to get experience?’ It just depends on how outgoing you are as a person, and if you’re not afraid to just walk up to a table and ask questions.”
The career fair took place on Wednesday, March 19 from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
“I would say it shows a very good representation,” Hanks said. “There’s probably not a lot of common things like grocery stores and fast food restaurants and Starbucks is not there. There’s a full range of representation.”
