Career Day At Verrado Middle School In Buckeye

Learning about careers is only part of the lesson for sixth-graders at Verrado Middle School in Buckeye. The other part is learning about the schooling it takes to get there.

The students mingled with business owners, entrepreneurs and members of the Buckeye Police and Fire departments during Monday’s Career Day.

“Students are not making the connection between what we do in our classroom to what they will be doing in the future as far as their career goes,” sixth-grade teacher Sue Lange said.

That’s why she organized the career fair, which she hopes will become an annual program and schoolwide.

“I am a social-studies teacher and I was incorporating math into the lesson,” Lange said. “A student said, ‘I want to be a pilot, but I don’t need to know math.’ ”

Each of the 300 sixth-grade students chose three careers to learn about, and the professionals explained how to be successful in those jobs.

The Buckeye Police Department’s K-9 unit brought three dogs to campus. Police officers talked about their job and the training required to do well.

They put on a demonstration and took questions from the students, such as:

“Do they train them as a puppy?”

“What is your favorite part of the job?”

Sixth-grader Anthony Totri said he was glad to be part of Career Day.

“I think it was a great opportunity to see what jobs are possible,” the 12-year-old said. “Since I was a little kid, I loved animals. Not many people get to see what these kinds of jobs do.”