Shutter to Think: Career exploration at SVCC highlights potential paths

Last week, I covered a career exploration event for eighth graders at Sauk Valley Community College.

I ran into an old classmate, and neither of us remembered attending an event quite like this in our junior high days, but we were both impressed at what was offered to the young students.

The sheer size of the event surprised me – about 1,000 students snaked their way through the halls of SVCC, stopping by to visit a number of possible career paths. More than 70 business and organizations had set up booths to ply their trade.

Much like the curious 13- and 14-year-olds, I did a few laps around the school, taking in small bites of the large event in order to focus on the faces and stories that make up the larger picture. And like those curious students, I was drawn to the booths that had neat stuff to show.

The event included everything from a pilot who allowed students to wear his combat helmet, to a real(-life?) skeleton whose boney face was poked repeatedly at a funeral home display, to a local meteorologist who put students in front of a green screen to announce cold fronts, golf ball-sized hail and mostly to partly sunny skies.

One of my last stops was at the booth of a local photographer who had a studio set up with reflectors, strobes and a tripod.

I picked this image to accompany the column for a couple of reasons. The photo that ran was cropped for space reasons, and I really wanted the whole picture to be seen. I also really liked that I was able to time my own picture to grab the flash of the strobe.

One last note: I’m a sucker for a good alliteration, so I was especially proud of the headline “Eighth graders explore embalming and engineering.”

It’s the small victories.

– Follow Alex T. Paschal on @SVMPhotogs on Instagram or email him at apaschal@shawmedia.com.