While at the Britton-Hecla graduation ceremony on Sunday, I often glanced at the class of 2025—mostly to take photos of them, but sometimes just to see if I could get in their heads. What were they thinking about? Hoping for? Worrying about? One thing I wondered was what exciting careers they’ll be pursuing in the near or not-so-distant future. Will they land jobs hundreds of miles away in high-rise offices? Or stay local, helping their communities through meaningful work?
A couple of weeks ago, I was musing on careers for a different reason. Sheila Anderson, Britton-Hecla’s counselor, invited the Marshall County Journal to their career fair. Despite a packed schedule, I couldn’t say no—these are my kind of events!
I was first asked to do a career event back when I worked at a newspaper in Iowa. I’d kind of fallen into journalism and wasn’t sure how to present myself as any sort of authority. I over-planned a PowerPoint and had to rush through it, which probably didn’t leave much of an impression.
Fast forward a few years—Langford Area’s counselor and my good friend Megan organized an awesome career fair. But again, I didn’t know exactly what to bring to the table (literally), especially for a hands-on activity that could work for all ages.
In the end, I think it went okay. Instead of a fancy branded tablecloth, I made one from Marshall County Journal newspapers. Genius, right? I handed out some free papers and created a few simple activities. Students picked the better photo for the paper—a blurry one versus a crisp one—and older students helped with headline writing and critiquing page layouts (using examples from other papers, of course—not the always-perfect Journal).
It was fun, though I admit to a little booth envy. Horton, right next to me, had robots kids could operate with game controllers. I didn’t even have candy!
I’d like to say I was more prepared when Mrs. Anderson asked me to take part in Britton’s fair this month. I had ideas, but it was a hectic time with our graduation section and a few other things going on. I ended up reusing the Langford activities and, thanks to my husband, added a new one. I blew up an interesting photo that never made the paper and had the kids write funny captions for it. (I’ve still got them all and hope to print some in the next couple of weeks.)
One amusing anecdote—I’d considered doing a newspaper “treasure hunt” for typos. As much as I hate to admit it, headlines sometimes slip through with errors. I thought it’d be fun to let students hunt for them and win a prize. But I ran out of time—and couldn’t even recall any recent typos.
Ironically, I ended up making a pretty good one myself. While setting up for the fair, the folks across the aisle pointed out a pretty glaring error on my Marshall County Journal sign. We all got a good laugh. Someone asked if I did it on purpose. Sure, sure. (See my sign below to spot the error!)
I’d love to say I convinced a B-H or LA senior to dive into journalism—but who knows? Whatever these freshly minted grads decide to do, I’m sure they’ll be successful and, hopefully, change the world in big ways.
