Who said it: The kids are alright
The temperature hovered below freezing, and the sun hid behind a gray cover of clouds, but the mood inside Flathead High School was anything but gloomy. We presenters had hustled in from the parking lot, lugging career props and bags and bags of candy to sweeten the proceedings.
The students flowed in, their kinetic energy bouncing around amid the shuffle of sneakers and teen banter. Filling two gyms and a conference space, 71 presenters stood ready for the school’s Dec. 9 career fair. Each of the 400-plus freshmen visited seven “stations” over the morning.
“The kids get really excited,” says Mike Kelly, director of Flathead High’s career center and organizer of the fair for the last four years. “They come away talking about things they discovered or activities they did.” This year, a midwife brought a placenta, the Creston fish hatchery had coolers with live specimens and a court reporter demonstrated specialized equipment.
At the Daily Inter Lake table the students eagerly reached for the paper, checking out the stories and pictures, or looking for mentions of friends in the sports section. “How do you keep your opinion out of the paper?” they asked. “Who decides what to write about?” “How many people work there?”
I took heart in these great questions. First and foremost, journalism gives permission to be curious — heck, it’s a prerequisite. The stories we publish build community through the sharing of vital, verified information.
As a freshman, I sure wasn’t focused on a career. My obsessions had transferred from horses to boys, but I loved reading and writing. In time I would join the staff of my college paper, edit and write for magazines and newspapers here and abroad, and, for a while, work as a legal editor. Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard noted that life is lived forward, but understood backward. May our futures build on our past.
“Have you ever read something that wasn’t true on social media?” I asked them. They LOLed and nodded vigorously. We talked about how facts move us closer to truth, and help people make better decisions. Most of their parents don’t have time to attend school board or library meetings; it’s our reporters’ job to go, and distill them to paragraphs — a historic service of local news organizations.
When our time was up, they tucked the newspapers into their notebooks and filtered out to the next briefing, such as for Flathead Valley Community College’s culinary arts program, MSU’s Northwestern Agricultural Research Center or AmeriCorps, whose indefatigable cheerleaders provoked friendly competition among us all.
Kelly says that after the fair the students must report their findings: “who they talked with, and what they found out.” There’s a progression through sophomore year, he added, with students undergoing mock interviews in the next phase.
“It’s not a job,” Kelly says, helping kids find their career path. “It’s really a lot of fun.” Then, ever the community connector: “Will you come back next year?”
Audience development director Margaret Davis can be reached at 406-758-4436 or mdavis@dailyinterlake.com