City High sophomores ‘caravan’ to explore career options

City High sophomores will leave behind their backpacks and desks later this month to partake in a different kind of learning: the entire grade will visit Kirkwood Community College for some first-hand instruction from an FBI agent, a musician, a biomedical engineering researcher, a chef, a police officer, a teacher, healthcare professionals, and more.

The Career Caravan event, a trip to Kirkwood's Iowa City campus in conjunction with Kirkwood's Workplace Learning Connection program, will give students an inside look at a variety of career options from those who perform the work on a daily basis. Students will leave City High around noon on Monday, Dec. 19 and will return to the school later that afternoon.

Each student will have the opportunity to attend three sessions, in which speakers will describe a typical day on the job and share salary information, education requirements, use of technology, future outlook for the profession, and more. Parent volunteers will help with the event.

The event is new at City High this year, said guidance counselor Tom Carey. “We're really excited for our students to be able to get firsthand information about multiple careers of interest in a short time span. The Workplace Learning Connection has done a great job of finding valuable resources in the community to make this meaningful for students. We're really looking forward to this event.”