Students at North Rowan Middle School recently got to learn firsthand about various careers from professionals in the Rowan County community.
Professionals filled the classrooms at the school, providing engaging presentations to students about their careers. The importance of school and education was strongly stressed by all of the presenters.
Students wrote articles about some of the careers that stood out to them. Here are some of their responses:
• • •
I think nurse Meagan Walton was very kind and very organized when talking about her job at Rowan Regional Medical Center.
She talked about the certain tests you had to take while in school.
She said before you could actually become a certified nurse you had to take a board test and if you didn’t pass it you could pay another $200 to retake it.
She told us she worked with the children and women’s department. She also said you’re always in school when working at the hospital.
Cyndi Atwell, Spencer Public Library’s librarian, had quite an eager presentation and appeared before the children with a smiling face.
She first introduced us to the proper education needed to become a librarian.
During her presentation, she gave us a tour of the library. She told us many of the books were donated.
The library doesn’t have computers but card catalogs. She also told us that eighth grade students from North Rowan Middle School tutor kids in the afternoon.
— By Maddie Howe, Lida Vang and Jailene Aguilar
• • •
We learned lots of cool things from our presenters. The most enjoyable careers that we observed were from Piedmont Natural Gas and the Salisbury firefighter.
Mark Thompson is the Salisbury firefighter who showed us all about his job and what he does. His job has the best working hours ever — he works 24 hours one day and is off the next two days. He showed us all of his awesome fire tools. Not just that but he let us hold all his working gear.
Brian Jones from Piedmont Natural Gas explained how his job is very dangerous; everyday he works he faces electrocution and being severely burnt by the gas that he works with. After he told us about his job he let us try out his working equipment.
On our Career Day we learned so much about how important education is yet some of us still take it for granted. Education is an important aspect to everyday life.
— By Timothy Robinson and Brandon Castillo
• • •
On career day, our favorite careers were the crime scene investigator and the police officer.
The crime scene investigator, Detective Pacilio, showed us some of the equipment that he uses to solve crime cases. Some of the tools he uses are very interesting.
He uses different kinds of lights to show blood. He also has magnetic powder and different chemicals to show fingerprints on different pieces of evidence. The tools he uses to do his job can be very expensive, but worth it when you solve the crime. To become a detective, you can’t have a criminal record.
You also have to be a police officer for five to 10 years before you can become an investigator. You are also required to have a high school diploma. This job seems very exciting.
Officer Crews told us about how important education is for any career you choose. The more education you have, the higher ranked in your job you can become.
Officer Crews showed us a video of a high speed chase. In the video, they were chasing a criminal when the man turned around and shot the police car. Policemen have a very dangerous and difficult job.
At any moment of the day, a policeman has a very high chance of being killed or beaten while on duty. When you choose your career, it is good to choose something you enjoy doing so that you will have a set career.
We would like to thank everyone that came for career day at North Rowan Middle School. We all really enjoyed listening to different careers and knowing some of our choices for when we grow up. This gave us a lot to think about because no matter what you do, you will always need a good education for what ever you decide to do with your life.
— By Rob Monroe, Holly Beaver and Lucas Beam
• • •
I think Stacy Davis, who was the lawyer, was quite descriptive and gave a great presentation. She told us the requirements to become a lawyer, the main thing being education.
A cool thing I learned from her is that judges and lawyers spend the same amount of time in school, from kindergarten through college, it totals up to 21 years!
The information she told us was fascinating and really captured our interest. Everyone was quiet and participating, willing to ask many questions with eager faces. After her presentation, she gave us pens, which I thought were cool. Overall, Career Day was a great experience and I hope we can do more neat things like this at school! ~ Jailene
We had an exciting career day. One of the other careers that we got to learn about was being a judge. Mr. Charlie Brown was the judge there and told us the education and the jobs he was working with. He said he worked with the teens or kids cases and also many more. It would be sad for him because of the violence associated with these cases. Charlie Brown answered all the questions the students asked him.
— By Jailene Aguilar, and Tiffany Vang
• • •
We are going to tell you about one of the presenters, Mr. Pall. Mr. Pall is prior military. He is now a Diplomat and Dignitary Protector.
Mr. Pall’s company is made up of all prior military people. They have to have served in the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, or Coast Guar — -the five branches of the military. Dignitaries will hire Mr. Pall’s company to transport them through high-threat zones. Mr. Pall has a job as a Diplomatic Security Specialist. When he was in the Army he served in the Gulf War and Desert Storm.
— By Alton Link and Jake Pritchard