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The Paulding County Economic Development (PCED) office will host a Business, Industry, & College Expo Showcase event on April 3 at the Extension Building on the Paulding County Fairgrounds. The event will bring junior and senior students from all three Paulding County high schools in addition to Continental High School to learn about, meet and discuss future opportunities with area colleges and businesses.
“This event continues to evolve each year, last year we saw the addition of hands-on activities which helped lead into more student and employer discussions. We understand our students are at different stages in their future job and education journey, so the goal of the expo is to showcases the different opportunities in our area. We’re excited too that Vantage Career Center has funded access to a career assessment platform called You Science, allowing students to seek out careers and colleges that suit their strengths found from their assessment. It’s our first time trying this, and we’re excited to see how it goes.” stated Economic Development Office Manager Kristen Schilt.
The event will run from 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 Non with students arriving at the top of each hour. Paulding County Vantage Career Center students are invited to attend the opening hour on their way to the career center. Each school will then bus their students to the event on the hour for forty-five minutes. Homeschool students and the general public are invited to attend at any time.
Students will be provided a “passport” upon arrival. The passports suggest a variety of questions to ask participating exhibitors to help start conversation. Each student is encouraged to talk to a minimum of 10 businesses and have the business sign their passport. Completed passports will be entered into a drawing for a $50 gas gift card, one winner per school will be drawn. The gift cards are sponsored by C&Y Oil Company and National Gas & Oil.
This event has grown over the years. This year there are a total of 52 entities that have sent an RSVP for the event, with many having interactive and hands-on activities for students to engage with. For questions about the event contact the PCED office at 419-399-8295.