Students embrace Ottawa County Career Showcase

PORT CLINTON — Nearly 600 students from schools across the county were treated to a smorgasbord of potential future careers at the second Ottawa County Career Showcase.

The Ottawa County Business Advisory organized the event, and it was hosted by the Civilian Marksmanship Program at Camp Perry.

Not only did the seemingly endless potential future employers’ booths fill the entirety of the large indoor range at the CMP’s Competition Center, they filled every other room and even continued outdoors.

Dennis Epke, a lead mechanic at Materion, ran one of the event's most popular stations. However deceivingly simple it may have appeared, the safety harness lift not only generated smiles and laughs; it also offered an opportunity for students to be engaged.

“It’s something they can do and it gets them interested,” Epke said. “And it shows the safety side of it as well.”

Materion develops and manufactures advanced materials for use around the world.

Marshall Brink, an athletic trainer at Magruder Hospital, said this is his crew's second year at the showcase, and they’ve learned a lot themselves since the first one.

With various physical therapy activities, Magruder’s station saw a steady flow of interested students.

“The kids are really taking on to it,” he said. “They have a lot of fun with the hands on, trying to challenge themselves, having competitions between each other.”

A booth from FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station showcased two sides of potential future employment. Both the technical staff that keep the plant running and the security staff that keep it safe were represented.

The technical side got a lot of questions about the nuclear plant itself, the most popular being whether or not it could blow up like a nuclear bomb, which they explained could not happen in the way many students imagined.

The quick lesson taught the students about the kinds of nuclear reactions and varying levels of enrichment.

Many of the things learned throughout the event occurred in a similarly short but effective way, at least judging by the students' engagement.

jstinchcom@gannett.com

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