High-schoolers consider future careers at fair

BARSTOW • Charlie Tolvert knew which table he wanted to visit first at the career fair Thursday but the 12th-grader also took time to peruse the other local employers that filled Barstow High School’s gymnasium.

“Just to see my options, see (what’s) out there,” the 17-year-old said.

About 30 local businesses and agencies, ranging from Desert Ambulance to Bridges Academy of Beauty to retailer Van Heusen, manned information tables and talked with high-schoolers at Barstow High’s first career fair hosted by Mojave XP, a vocational education academy at the high school.

Tolvert, who is considering a career in computer engineering, made a beeline for the representatives from the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex to learn about the schooling required to land a computer programming position.

Students get wide-eyed looking at images of the big space antennas, according to Leslie Premeaux of Goldstone’s human resources department.

“We have a wide variety of jobs,” she assured both students planning for college and those wanting to get vocational training to become, for instance, a welder.

“They were really excited about hanging from the antennas and welding,” Premeaux said.

Premeaux and other business representatives like Scott Porter, a lineman at Southern California Edison, agreed in advising students to attend a career technical school if they weren’t considering a four-year university in the future. Porter, a 30-year veteran of SCE, said it can be challenging for applicants fresh out of high school to land a job without additional training.

“Just off the street it’s hard to get on with this company,” he said.

Twelfth-grader Carolann Espinoza said she heard the same message while making the rounds with employers. Espinoza talked with staff from Barstow Community College about their child development program, which she hopes will set her on the path toward her future career goals.

“I want to be a dental assistant and they said I need to start somewhere,” Espinoza said. The 17-year-old said she was unfazed by the economic recession’s impact on the job market — she just hopes it improves after she finishes community college in a few years. “I’m excited,” she said. “I want to work.”

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(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com