Career Specific College and Career Fair at Bedford County Technical Center

bedford job fair two

When it comes to caring about our local schools, businesses, and neighbors, Mellott aims high. Recently we were a part of the Career Specific College and Career Fair at Bedford County Technical Center. The one Mellott attended was for building construction and welding students. There were 17 vendors and approximately 90 students that went through. The students were from Bedford, Chestnut Ridge, Everett, HOPE for Hyndman, Northern Bedford, and Tussey Mountain. Jonas “Buck” Smith, Group Leader Machining and Manufacturing at Mellott said, We have hired some of our best employees from those school districts.” He went on to name them; Jim Levy, Ron Clark, Roy Clark, Kelly Cornell, Wes Grimes, Monte Redinger and Buck, himself. Buck attended the event this year and felt very positive about it and all the students he spoke with. Along with getting to speak with so many promising students, all the vendors were treated to a delightful lunch that was made by their culinary program students, Malachi, Chloe and Maddy.

Sam Shuss, the Career and School Counselor, has been doing these fairs for 13 years and he said, “These Career Fairs are some of my favorite events of the year. The students are introduced to some of their potential options in the upcoming years, whether it be postsecondary or the workforce as well as organizations such as CareerLink or the Job Corps. The vendors like the fairs because they know that all the students have some sort of interest in construction and/or welding, while the students like that every vendor that is there has something that could help them in the future. Due to the pandemic, many of the students have not met many people that could help them to get to where they want to be, professionally. These fairs help make that introduction, and it works to help the students improve and work on some of their soft skills, some of which have taken a back seat in this crazy time. I thoroughly enjoy watching the students interact with the adults, and I am hoping the students can use this information to make informed decisions about their professional future.”