Students learned about different careers from visiting professionals
WOODLAND — Woodland Intermediate School held its first Career Day featuring guest professionals who taught students about career choices including firefighting, dog grooming, being a railroad engineer, working as a seamstress for Nike and many more on Tue., June 12.
Patti Cutler, a fourth grade teacher at Woodland Intermediate, invited professionals from around the county to teach students about their careers. Students rotated through the different speakers for 20-minute sessions to hear about different jobs and learn about the many opportunities available to high school graduates. Following each presentation, students asked questions to learn more about the different careers.
Lori Horseley owns the Shabby Dog Salon in Woodland and demonstrated how to groom dogs while also teaching students about running a business. Following her demonstration, students asked about the different kinds of equipment and what techniques groomers use to calm rowdy dogs.
Firefighters from Clark County Fire & Rescue brought a fire truck and instructed students on the importance of simply being ready to go at a moment’s notice by keeping trucks and equipment in tip-top shape. Students asked what firefighters like most about the job to which all three answered, “We get to help people when they need it the most; that means a lot to us.”
Nick Cutler, Patti’s husband, runs a unique delivery service — his company uses raising-flatbed trailers to deliver large pre-made sheds directly to clients’ homes and businesses. Nick demonstrated how their trucks use pulleys and cabling to push and pull giant sheds on and off their trailers and explained the different issues a driver may encounter while delivering a shed.
Brent Estep, a railroad engineer for BNSF Railway, taught students about the different jobs and equipment used on trains. To work as a railroad employee, many jobs only require a high school diploma, however learning is an important part of any career. “You never stop learning while working at the railroad,” he said. “My training started day one and it never stopped.”
Estep taught students how trains work, how important trains are to the world economy and even the different kinds of vocabulary railroad workers use such as saying “I’m going to eat beans” instead of “I’m going to lunch,” a phrase stemming for the industry’s beginnings when many workers brought canned beans to eat for their ease of preparation and inexpensive cost.
Estep also taught students the importance of railroad safety, “The average train is more than 115 cars in length taking 18 football fields to stop from 70 miles per hour,” he said. “This is why it’s so important that people not play on railroad tracks and why you should always stop your car whenever the safety arms come down at a railroad crossing.”
Corinn Campbell, a seamstress working for Nike in Beaverton, OR, talked about working at Nike since 1984 after getting a job straight out of college as a prototype seamstress creator. “I didn’t get a job because I had a college degree,” she explained. “I got the job because I knew how to sew.”
Campbell talked about how technology dramatically changed the way she does her job. “When I first started, we created our patterns by drawing them out on paper,” she said. “Now, the designs for new clothing and shoes are created entirely using computers.” Over her years at Nike, Corinn worked as a supervisor and also met famous athletes who needed special clothes designed for their unusual body sizes including Michael Jordan among many others.
Patti Cutler came up with the idea for Career Days during school when she taught for Kalama School District.
“This Career Day is the first of its kind at Woodland Intermediate School and I’d like to make it a tradition every year,” she said. “As a staff, we feel it’s never too early for a student to start planning for their future, and events like career days help generate ideas and inspiration for students to consider what career path they’d like to follow after they graduate.”
Information provided by Woodland School District.
