Hundreds of students explore different career paths during fair at SNHS

Jesse Bonello - Staff Writer

Approximately 300 local and visiting students interacted with a variety of career specialists during a career exploration fair at Sioux North High School (SNHS), which was hosted by Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre (KERC), on Nov. 29.
Along with students from SNHS, students from Sioux Mountain Public School, Cat Lake First Nation, Slate Falls First Nation, and Bearskin Lake First Nation attended the fair and received tours of SNHS.
KERC Special Project and Performance Measures Lead Monika Orzechowska said she was excited to see students have a wide variety of hands-on opportunities with different career specialists.
“This is our fourth year hosting this event, but only our second year in Sioux Lookout… Each year we learn more and evolve more. The people we have now have really brought a lot of interaction for the students. I’ve been looking around at all the displays and everyone is having students do things, whether it’s fleshing hide, cooking, or looking at bits of plane engines with pilots, so it’s really neat to see. As with all our career exploration events, the focus is on having students be able to experience as much of the tools of the trade as possible,” said Orzechowska.
“It’s all through Kwayaciiwin with funding through the First Nation Inuit Youth Employment Strategy,” she said.
The fair featured representation from KBM Resources Group, KERC, Sioux Lookout Remedy'sRx, Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, Sioux Lookout EMS Paramedics, Sugar Me Sweet, Slate Falls Airways, SkyCare, Anishinaabek Voices, Atwood Consulting, artisan Kanina Terry, digital artist Alex Short, dietitian Jean Chen, Culinary specialists Delilah Anderson and Roy Jr. Anderson, and hairdresser Kaden Anderson.