Career day launches in positive direction

The first Operation CareerLaunch day at Fullerton College proved that technical careers are in high demand.

"It was successful as it exposed our students and the community to the opportunities that are available

right here at Fullerton College," said Rebecca Morgan, Career Technical Education Counselor.

Operation Career Launch began with a seminar in the Wilshire Auditorium. It held students and community member's eager to learn about the current state of career technical education and how to get help from the United States Army.

Speakers at the seminar included Dr. Lance Izumi, president of the board of governors and Dr. Jack Scott, chancellor of the board of governors, who spoke to the audience about the budget portion of choosing a technical career.

U.S. Army Brigadier General Michael Garrett and Brigadier General Arnold Gordon-Bray spoke about how the U.S. Army offers a lot more than long vacations to the Middle East.

Scott was able to explain that people who have a two-year degree will see a 61 percent income increase if that same person were to start the same career right out of high school.

Gordon-Bray's main objective at the seminar was to expose everyone to the Army who is or ever has been interested in joining and to explain the four major ways you can become an officer for the Army.

The career fair portion of the event was filled with exciting education that ranged from the Army's rock climbing tower to Disney's production team.

Rudy Gonzalez, known as the science guy, had a workshop in the event where he was able to prove to people walking by that science is and always will be around you.

Gonzalez proved his theory by doing experiments, such as creating a hand-made water vortex. With two soda bottles and liquid nitrogen frozen bananas, he was able to create a hammer and hit a nail into a piece of wood.

Local schools with booths in the event gave out "career seeds," which were square pieces of paper given to people in an envelope that had information about different technical careers on the back.

The front side of these squares said "I want to be a," then they all had different career names. On the back, further information on the specific career was given.

Although younger students from neighboring schools were not able to observe everything going on at the career fair, such as the bomb searching robot and it's obstacle course in the middle of the quad, they were able to get ideas of the technical areas that FC has to offer.

FC offered tours for those interested in a certain technical career. These tours visited various departments of school, exploring the opportunities of each department such as the automotive, career life and planning, construction, cosmetology, drafting, esthetics, fashion, interior design, photography, printing technology, welding, and wood technology.

The only cost from Operation Career Launch came from the advertising not covered by its sponsors such as the U.S. Army, Graves communication and design, Project GPS2, CTE, and the Fullerton Chamber of Commerce and local business donations.