College/Career Expo

3/29/2023

photo courtesy of WDSD

Just last week on March 24th, juniors and seniors at Walnut Grove got to experience the annual Career/College Expo, held at Meridian Park, to learn about different careers and requirements for colleges. Juniors, Karson Gibson, Emery Langston, Anna Brown, and Adrian Garcia got the opportunity to attend the expo and had a lot to say.

An excited and ambitious student, Karson Gibson was able to attend the expo which she exclaimed, “was a blast and a half!” At the expo, students were able to venture from table to table to learn about different colleges and careers to look into after high school. She further exclaimed, “...they fed us, and a man talked about overcoming your giants, and it was so inspirational.”

Guest speaker, Niles Davis, not only informed WG students but also inspired many. After Karson’s experience at the expo, she had formed somewhat of an idea as to what college she wanted to attend and what she wanted to be when she is older. “I want to go to Augusta [University],” she stated, “...they have a really good medical field, and I want to be a medical social worker.” Karson was overjoyed to be able to attend the expo not only because it was very informative, but also was “[given] a stress ball [from] this one construction company.”

Emery Langston, an excellent student who attended the expo, thought “[the expo] was good [and] got to learn a lot of new information.” Emery expressed, “the guest speaker was really good… I got to learn about a lot of new colleges and careers that were around Walton County.” When asked what career interests him, he replied saying, “Paralegal Studies, I was really interested in that, and something to do with IT.” He promoted that idea further by explaining how he thought it was “interesting” and explained how these careers “can be very beneficial to society.” Emery later mentioned, “I was just looking for people who were like representing [law and IT] because that’s the only thing I knew I wanted to hear was something to do with law or IT.” After going to the expo, Emery still plans to do an “internship in law” and see how it is to “actually work in the law field.”

A bright and brilliant student, Anna Brown attended the expo last week and described it as “a learning experience.” In Anna’s opinion, she “wasn’t particularly super interested, but it was interesting to learn about them….” She further stated, “there weren’t many colleges there, but there was a whole bunch of jobs there.” The expo “opened [many] eyes up to new jobs and what to do after high school if college isn’t an option.” Before she attended the expo, Anna already had her mind set on majoring in environmental science, but she did note that “[the expo] just showed [her] more options after high school [other than college].”

Similarly, another talented student, Adrian Garica, also attended the expo and described it as “a lot of learning.” Adrian relayed, “it was good to see all the different schools and companies that came out.” Adrian expressed his interest stating, “I looked at a bunch of the law enforcement like the Sheriff's office that was there.” To add to that idea, he mentioned, “Family reasons would be why I’m interested in law enforcement.” While the expo excelled in career/job interest, Adrian talked about how he “didn’t really see any colleges there that really got” to him except Georgia Southern. Although the expo lacked colleges that posed interest to Adrian, he made clear his mind was already set on Kennesaw state. In the future, he plans to “Major in business”.

Many could agree that the expo held this year was a success for students at Walnut Grove. Not only was it just informative, but it was filled with fun activities for students to do!