MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Today the Marquette Alger RESA held its first CTExtravaganza for 8th graders and high schoolers. Around 75 businesses and organizations got to connect with and educate over 600 students on the careers they might go into.
“8th grade is a good time for them to see what’s out there,” said MARESA Career and Tech Education Director Erich Zeigler. “To start taking a look at what classes they’ve taken and what classes they can take in the future and really start to plan out what they want to do in their future.”
Ziegler said the extravaganza, while helping students discover new careers, will also help the businesses connect with their future workforce
“We care a lot about the Upper Peninsula ad our communities and our students and out schools and this is a good chance to connect both,” said Ziegler. “To help our students but really help our businesses and organizations keep and retain that talent in the UP.”
Two of the 8th graders said they liked the range of careers they got to learn about.
“We’ve seen farming, we’ve seen firefighting we’ve seen teachers, almost everything,” said Isabel Schaedig from Bothwell Middle School.
“There were some people from Partridge Creek Farm and some other farming and conservation places which was really interesting, and there were some pilots, that was gool,” said Ash Tschirgi, also from Bothwell.
Ziegler said the Marquette Alger RESA hopes to make the CTExtravaganza an annual event in future years.
