Malden High School never seems to run out of fresh ways to encourage and support its students. One of the many ways that they tried to support their students this fall was by hosting their Fall Job Fair at the MHS Gallery on November 3rd
The fair was held from 9:15-10:45 during the Flex period, allowing students to choose what time would work best for them. Upon entering the fair students were told to write down their names, ages, and emails on a sign-in sheet at the front table.
They were free to roam around and talk to different people who came to the school to represent the many different companies.
Among the companies represented at the school job fair was Continental Pools. Represented by William Alsamerai, a lifeguard recruiter for the company. Alsamerai was at the school promoting a summer lifeguard position for teenagers 16 and over. Students must be able to swim and will be offered Lifeguard Certification Courses. With over 151 facilities in Massachusetts, they promote lifeguard openings at different high schools to help staff their polls.
A known organization at the high school, the US Army, was also there. Sergeants Matthew Leno and James Corley are MHS’s assigned recruiters. They have been around the high school for a while and are here to provide information and answer questions to students interested in a military experience after high school.
Alicia Lewis, an outreach coordinator from Building Pathways, talked about the experience offered by the workplace. Students in the program head over to Roxbury for 200+ free training hours to teach students an overview of everything construction-related and have offered this opportunity to different students at MHS over the years.
Common themes among the many job opportunities were, many of them were some form of paid training. With companies such as More Than Words, which offers paid job training to youth who fit their criteria, these kids work in person to learn different job skills and even have engaging shifts as well. Lydia Csatari, the admissions and community engagement coordinator, represented More Than Words explained that sometimes students could “come in for a shift to work on your goals.” Their goal could range from as simple as reading a book to doing their homework.
Cataldo Ambulance Service Inc. also attended the Malden High School job fair. Manager of workplace experience and community outreach Mariah Mulcahy explained that “a lot of people start in this field because they want to go into nursing, physician’s assistant, [or want to be a] doctor.” At Cataldo, students can build up patient care hours, start EMT school, and be paid to attend, as well as drive ambulances.
Mulcahy expressed that it is so important that students join this program before they go to medical school because the “experience is invaluable,” and the opportunities are limitless because the “city of Boston is so saturated."
Putting this job fair together was not an easy feat, but Grace Evans, a youth program specialist from the Metro North Workforce Board, and the job coach at MHS were determined to make it happen. It’s something that happens often at MHS: “we’ve hosted it for the last three years,” during the fall, and spring. Taryn Belowsky, Burnelli Guidance Counselor explained.
Evans, with help from people in the guidance department such as Erin Craven, Belowsky, and others, worked hard to arrange this event.
“Before the day of the fair we are working behind the scenes,” Evans explained. Evans wanted to work hard to “try to reflect the diversity of Malden businesses.
She also noted that they tried “to do [their] best to bring the best to our students at Malden.” Of course, this included working on making “this program reflect students’ interests.” She is willing to take suggestions from students as she is excited to hear their ideas and opinions.
The job fair itself was well received by students like Pampam San, a junior. She felt as though the people who came to talk about the jobs “were very descriptive in explaining how the job was, and how it would look like during the school year/summer/weekends.” Of course, understanding these details is important when it comes to picking a job.
Senior Basma Braer has been looking for a part-time job for months now and liked the job fair as well. She agreed with San about “how well-spoken the people in charge were and how they were clear about what tasks and responsibilities you would have if you had worked at their respective place.”
However, a common disappointment was the lack of variety in the companies that came. Braer explained that she had been “expecting a wider range of options like last year's job fair.” San had similar feelings as they felt that “not that many of the options interested me since many of them were quite similar to each other.”
But overall the job fair was well-loved and highly recommended. Be sure to head down to the next one this Spring, so that you have a “chance to see what opportunities you can seek out,” as San explained.
