Maitri Patel, a Grade 11 student at Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School, has been to career fairs before, but she said the one held in her school’s gymnasium on Friday was “definitely different.”
“It wasn’t like the one where you just stand around and pick up brochures. This is a brand-new initiative with Agriculture in the Classroom,” Patel said. “They have hands-on activities for the students to get them interested in things like showing grains through microscopes and explaining a strawberry’s DNA. It’s pretty cool.”
Patel was one of about 1,200 students who experienced the EngAGed Career Fair held at Crocus Plains, hosted by Agriculture in the Classroom-Manitoba, a non-profit, charitable organization.
AITC-M develops programs linked to school curriculums — and distributes resources and activities for teachers and students — focused on the importance of agriculture in Manitoba.
The organization approached Crocus Plains through the STEM club, which promotes science, technology, engineering and math.
“We were delighted because agriculture is part of STEM for our science term, but it’s not really touched on that much,” said Patel, one of the students who helped organize the event.
Friday’s career fair was only the second time AITC-M has held one. The first one took place last year in Portage la Prairie, said Adelle Gervin, the non-profit’s program manager.
The goal, she said, is to teach students that there’s more to agriculture than farming, that careers are a possibility and jobs are available.
“From business to technology, finance, food production, marketing, sales, graphic design, web development, there are so many different things that students can do within agriculture, and they don’t think about it,” said Gervin.
“And we just want them to look to agriculture. There’s a huge job shortage right now — we have a lot of jobs to fill in the ag industry.
“So we’re doing these career fairs to reach our youth who, in the next one to four years, will be entering the workforce, and we’re going to need them to fill those jobs,” she said.
Grade 11 student Ava Page said she was interested in learning about the financial side of agriculture.
“The tables I went to were really educational and not boring at all. The information they’re handing out is good for all kinds of students. It’s resourceful. But I liked the RBC and the Richardson International booths,” said Page.
As teacher Jessica Canning stood at the entrance of the gym watching a new wave of students come into the career fair, she said she was proud of her students who “took a lot of leadership to help organize the event.”
Canning and her husband farm just west of Souris. For the last four years, she has been teaching science and geography at Crocus Plains.
While she had help contacting the 25 organizations that set up booths at the career fair, Canning is credited with spearheading the event, Gervin told the Sun.
For her contributions to agriculture and food industry education, including creating a classroom garden for her Grade 9 science students, Canning was named as AITC-M’s 2024 Champion Award recipient.
Students are always “gung-ho” to learn, Canning said, and the career fair was a great opportunity to show the industry from the “ground up.”
“I thought about the types of organizations that my husband and I deal with on our farm,” Canning said. “We deal with a bank, an insurance company, a lawyer; we sell seed to Pioneer, we purchase feed from Viterra.
“All those organizations play a big role — and so does education. We have universities and colleges that offer agro-sciences, or degrees that could lead to an ago-science future,” she said.
“So we’re giving them an opportunity to not only learn about future careers in agriculture, but give them an idea of where their food actually comes from.”
Walking through the career fair and talking with students and presenters, Brandon School Division Supt. Mathew Gustafson said he was hearing “excellent feedback.”
“Agriculture is such an important part of our region. It’s great when we can have something like this for our students,” he said.
“Experiential activities like this one that broadens our students’ knowledge and exposure to different things is always important,” said Gustafson.
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