Eighth-graders explore career options at Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center

John Dudley, an industrial engineering and technology instructor at Southeast Missouri State University, discusses robotic engineering with area eighth-grade students Thursday at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center. (Fred Lynch) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

As a mangled hand flashed up on the screen, a roomful of eighth-grade students at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center recoiled.

As the room adjusted to the image, a student in the front row piped up.

"If you guys watched 'Saw,' that's not that bad," she said, referring to a series of horror movies.

The picture was part of a presentation given by Easy Stilson, a nurse recruiter at Southeast Missouri Hospital. She explained how doctors performed a skin graft on the hand, which was injured in a farming accident.

Representatives from the Lutheran Home and Saint Francis Medical Center also talked to students about the realities of the health care field. They talked about different career options, the pay, the training, the positives and the negatives.

"You need to know that not all nurses play with babies," Stilson said.

Rhett Hendrickson, marketing coordinator at the Lutheran Home, talked about the sacrifices made by workers in the field. He said medical school is a grueling process that prepares doctors mentally for the job.

"If you are a doctor, you will lose a patient," he said. "You have to be psychologically ready for that."

The presentation was part of Career Exploration Days at the center, a two-day event that continues today. About 1,000 eighth-graders from area schools will attend the center for more than an hour to learn about career opportunities.

The Southeast Missouri Wired Initiative and P20 Council as well as the Jackson and Cape Girardeau chambers of commerce collectively sponsored the event for the first time this year. While some schools had their own events in the past, this is the first time the groups made a unified effort, said Janet Witter, manager of the Wired Initiative.

"There are just a lot of things out there you don't know about when you're in eighth grade," Witter said.

Students took a career assessment with their guidance counselors beforehand to determine their interests. They attended presentations from business representatives in seven areas, including manufacturing, health, communication and business.

Witter said it will give students an idea of which classes to take in high school to prepare for career training.

"It gives them a chance to decide how they're going to spend their high school career," said Susan Crites, a counselor at Jackson Junior High School.

Twelve schools will come to Cape Girardeau for the presentations but the Wired Initiative will hold the event at four other locations throughout the region, including Poplar Bluff, Sikeston and Portageville.

abusch@semissourian.com

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1080 S. Silver Springs Road Cape Girardeau, MO