The future workforce: HIS students participate in Career Day
Published 4:33 pm Friday, January 20, 2017
By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer
HELENA–Comments of “Ew” and “Wow” could be heard from Helena Intermediate School students on Friday, Jan. 20, as veterinarian Brandt Tolbert showed an X-ray of a snake that had swallowed a squirrel.
Tolbert was just one of several career professionals who spent the majority of the day at Helena Intermediate speaking to third, fourth and fifth graders for Career Day.
HIS students got to see a glimpse into the future and see the variety of jobs available out in the workforce.
Tolbert is a veterinarian at Caldwell Mill Animal Clinic where he works with dogs and cats and has visited HIS a number of times for career day.
Tolbert showed other X-ray pictures that included a dog that accidentally swallowed a spoon, a dog that accidentally swallowed a rubber ball and more.
Many students had questions with the most popular being “Were they ok?”
Tolbert actually helped get the animals back to health and responded by saying “yes, but in some cases surgery was required.”
Tolbert enjoys the interaction with the students and said his favorite part about Career Day is “seeing the students’ faces light up and just seeing how excited they get.”
Other professionals on hand at Career Day included an electrician, an exercise instructor, an orthodontist, a firefighter, a police officer, FBI agents, an architect, an anesthesiologist, a makeup artist, a pharmacist, an engineer, a coach, a home organizer and more.
Electrician Jack Roberts had an interactive display in which he helped classes learn about circuits, switches, connections and safety around electricity.
Roberts is now retired and owned his own company for a number of years and now enjoys teaching younger generations about his work as an electrician and he used volunteers to help successfully light a light bulb.
Students left each classroom with knowledge on a variety of careers and took a break from their normal academic routines.