Bennington holds GEAR UP Career Fair

Bennington middle and high school students learned about life in the real world Friday, December 8, as nine professionals from a range of industries spoke to students at the school’s Career Fair.

The fair was sponsored by the Southeastern Oklahoma State University Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) Partnership as part of a career mini-grant program for the month of November, which is National Career Month. Bennington teachers Donna Maples, Sandra Redwine and Tommy McWilliams coordinated the event.

Speakers included representatives of Choctaw Nation, the Noble Foundation and Sundowner Trailers, and professionals from the fields of massage therapy, cosmetology and home health. They sat at tables that students visited based on their interests. Students were given career worksheets that they completed by talking with professionals from the fields in which they were most interested, which they submitted to their English teacher for a grade.

The school hopes to make the fair an annual event, Redwine said.

“The students really enjoyed it, and the speakers enjoyed the personal, one-on-one setting. The students already have lots of ideas for speakers for next year, so we will be sure to use those,” she said.

The SOSU GEAR UP Partnership is a federally grant funded program that serves 1,852 eleventh- and twelfth-graders in 14 schools in Bryan, Choctaw and McCurtain counties. The schools are: Achille, Bennington, Boswell, Broken Bow, Caddo, Calera, Colbert, Durant, Fort Towson, Hugo, Rock Creek, Silo, Soper and Valliant.

For more information on GEAR UP, call (580) 745-3122 or visit www.se.edu/gearup.