Classroom preparation and even hands-on internships are one way to learn about a potential career; meeting with professionals in the field brings that preparation to life. On Friday March 13, a group of 40 professionals met with Shoshoni High School students to describe what they do and to answer questions.
The 40 professionals met with two groups, freshmen and sophomores, and juniors and seniors. They divided the presentations into five sessions.
“Shoshoni Career Day” is the brainchild of Shoshoni High School Counselor Amy Mason. Mason has been at Shoshoni for eight years, and this is the eighth time presenters have filled classrooms, the gym, the parking lot, and just about every other open space on the Shoshoni K-12 campus.
“We do Career Days a little different each year,” Mason said.
Currently, the program has a three-year rotation. In year one, as in this year, professionals come to the school to present information on specific career choices.
“In the second year, we’ll play ‘The Game of Life,’ Mason said.
No, it’s not the popular board game “Life” but a set of circumstances each student is randomly given that they must navigate through the game. They must choose a career, they might become a single parent, they have to navigate through banking, loans, insurance, medical bills, and all the other requirements of adulthood.
In the third year, students will go out into businesses in the area. Shoshoni, Thermopolis, and Riverton all have businesses that will work with the students to allow them inside the day-to-day operations of their enterprise and to speak to workers and managers.
Mason assembled an impressive array of businesses, state agencies, local fire departments and elected officials for the students.
The opening session from 8:15 to 8:45 included presentations by Jess Sullivan of Bass Lake Farms. Sullivan is a graduate of Shoshoni High School and farms with her husband, Tim. She is the daughter of longtime Bass Lake Area farmer Rich Pingetzer.
Registered Nurse Bridget Truempler presented a session on health administration. Alyssa Saltsgavar of Riverton introduced the students to the world of being an esthetician, and representatives of Bonneville Transloaders and the Badwater Railroad of Shoshoni gave the students a taste of a local business they see every day.
Former Wrangler Korbin DeWitt, now a skilled drone pilot with his own company, “DeWitt Drone,” described how drones work with industry and agriculture and the future of these pilotless aircraft. Guardian Flight did a presentation on the football field.
Riverton School Resource Officer Charlie Marshall did a presentation on careers in law enforcement, and Travis Winger, the Edward D. Jones Financial Agent from Thermopolis, talked to the students about careers in finance and investing.
County 10’s Vincent Tropea and Charene Herrera-Gardner conducted an entertaining session on the growing field of media, where they discussed what being a hyper-local news agency is all about, and kids got to record their own podcast interviewing Tropea and Herrera-Gardner with questions about media.
The sessions were all divided into “Career Clusters,” which included:
- Natural Resources/Agriculture
- Health Services
- Human Services
- Industrial and Engineering Technology
- Business Management and Technology
- Arts / Communication
Mason made good use of former Shoshoni students as a tie-in to present high school students.
One of those was Josh Thoren.
Thoren earned a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy and worked for a couple of years in the field in Laramie, but chose another career path. He is currently a foreman at High Plains Power in Thermopolis.
Thoren and Riverton-based High Plains Power lineman Ross Thornock conducted a hands-on session in the main gym with students donning protective gear and attempting to do simple mechanical actions while wearing heavy linemen gloves.
A group of about a dozen junior and senior boys listened and interacted with Thoren and Thornock as they explained their profession, the job market for linemen, and how to become one.
“An apprenticeship takes four years,” Thoren said. “You have the opportunity to slide through with an internship once in a while.”
Thoren went on to describe the academic preparation for the job. “You need to know the basics of trigonometry,” he said. “You use algebra a lot.”
Thornock described the dangers of working with high voltage, trusting your partner, and being a responsible employee.
“It’s life and death,” Thornock said.
One of the more intriguing sessions was conducted by Fremont County Coroner Erin Ivie.
Using teacher Rachell Rapp’s science classroom, Ivie presented the ins and outs of a coroner’s duty to a room of about 10 students, mostly girls.
She spoke of crime scenes, how to determine time of death, and most appropriately for a career session, the science and path of study a student needs to get into this type of work.
Visible signs of awe, mixed with a little disgust, were on the student’s faces as Ivie described how the time of death can be determined by insect patterns. How maggots, flies, and other forensic techniques help law enforcement determine exactly what occurred at a potential crime scene.
It was a real-life description of fictional CSI for the students. Ivie spoke of chemistry, biology, and entomology as key subjects to study in college before entering the field of forensic science.
“An internship will get you in the door,” Ivie said. “An associate’s degree is a minimum and training at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy is a good way as well.”
The students were rapt with descriptions of toxicology, pathology, wound patterns on dead bodies, and photography taken with and without scale.
Another interesting session, also filled primarily by freshman and sophomore girls, was a presentation on possible careers with the FBI.
Lander agent Andrea Culver spoke to a group of students in history teacher Matt Mason’s classroom.
She described careers and responsibilities in the FBI that extend well beyond the standard image of a gun-carrying agent breaking down doors.
“Only about one-third of the 32,000 people in the FBI are law enforcement agents,” Culver said.
She delivered the information with an audio/visual projection on the front wall of the classroom.
She explained how FBI centers are located nationwide, with 55 or 56 currently, and a new center opening soon in Billings.
In the Shoshoni High School parking lot, former Shoshoni student Mike Forester, now a firefighter with the Shoshoni Volunteer Fire Department as a component of the Fremont County Fire Protection District, let a group of students operate a fire hose connected to a pumper truck and a fire hydrant outside the front of the building.
“We had it on low pressure, but the kids enjoyed it,” Forester said.
After the firefighting session concluded, Ryan Brothers Trucking of Thermopolis had a semi-tractor-trailer in the parking lot for the students to climb into as representatives explained the day-to-day of being a short- or long-haul trucker.
There were many other disciplines presented, including photography, the U.S. Forest Service, Wyoming Parks Department, Sports Broadcasting, Cosmetology, Dentistry, and Tattooing.
It was a broad-ranging look at potential careers for Shoshoni’s approximately 110 students and a glimpse into a possible future.