|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
HARLINGEN — Fermin Zamorano in his white lab coat and stethoscope moved from one table to another, exploring all the opportunities within his reach.
Fermin, 10, knows the world and all its gleaming highways lie within his reach because the Jubilee Harlingen GEAR UP College and Career Fair introduced him Wednesday to those highways and the glorious experiences along those highways.
“I was able to enjoy a lot of new fields I didn’t know about before, like the banks, AEP, and asking about it,” said Fermin, a fifth grader at Jubilee-Harlingen at 123 S. Palm Court Dr.
The event Wednesday hosted about 25 colleges and careers in the campus gym where about 300 Jubilee-Harlingen students in second through ninth grades moved from one table to another table — and more. They saw the fire truck outside, the AEP truck with its lift bucket, the boat presented by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Inside, they visited the South Texas Training Center from San Benito, the Harlingen Waterworks System, the tables where Chic-Fil-A, HEB, and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley spoke to kids about their opportunities.
“Students are going through each booth seeing what everybody does for their job, seeing if it’s a good fit for them,” said Martha Pina, GEAR UP coordinator for Jubilee-Harlingen.
“This college and career fair is important for our students because we want to make sure that at an early age they start to figure out what it is they want to do, see what job is a good fit for them,” Pina said. “We want to instill in all of them at an early age, so they don’t struggle when they are in high school.”
The kids swept into the gymnasium all jittery and excited and wondrous about the tables and the activities spreading before them. They moved with the playful chaos and uncertainty which is the natural result of youthful curiosity, nervous hands pressed to faces, eyes wide and roving, the sounds of shoes shuffling and the clashing conversations and comic interruptions.
They gathered at the table of the Harlingen Waterworks System where Utility Engineer Gabriel Trevino spoke to the kids about how the raw water with its solids and impurities moves through a system which removes those solids and impurities.
“Here’s the raw water,” he said, holding up a cup with cloudy fluid.
“This is finished water,” he said, displaying a clear cup of water.
At the Chic-Fil-A table, Operations Director Ricardo Ortiz spoke to a sizeable crowd of kids listening to his presentation.
“When somebody asks you to do something, do more than what is asked,” Ortiz told them. “When someone teaches you something, learn more than what is taught.”
And that’s where young Fermin stood in his white coat and his stethoscope. Fermin had acquired the coat because he was interested in the high-paying jobs in the medical field. But he was there now to learn about Chic-Fil-A, Border Patrol, AEP and anyone else there to serve him.
