By: Maria Allard | Roseville-Eastpointe Eastsider | Published November 7, 2022
ROSEVILLE — On the morning of Oct. 24, Roseville High School students had the opportunity to speak to career technical education professionals from various occupations during the school’s “Career Showcase.”
Jeff Verkeyn, RHS teacher, and Linda Weishaupt, executive director of the Eastpointe-Roseville Chamber of Commerce, coordinated the career fair, which was open to juniors, seniors and career technical education students.
Approximately 37 companies signed up to participate. Each company’s representatives set up a table with information about their organization and talked with students and answered questions.
“It’s an opportunity for them to get in and meet the juniors and seniors and give them information on training or externships programs,” Weishaupt said. “The No. 1 issue for businesses is finding talent.”
“We just want to make a commitment to the community. We want businesses to have the ability to help our schools and our students and vice versa,” Verkeyn said. “The students hear ‘career day’ and (learn) this is what you need to do. This is real to them.”
Community Choice Credit Union, Eifel Mold & Engineering Inc., Helios Psychiatry & Counseling, Holiday Inn Express, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, RCO Engineering and Mike Dorian Ford were among the businesses that participated.
The showcase also gave the professionals the opportunity to see the various programs offered at the school. One stop was in the culinary arts wing, where instructor Menka Mitovski shared information about the foods program. That morning, the culinary students made scones and muffins for the visitors.
“My kids may never become culinarians, but they will be an employee somewhere. So I try to teach them employee basics,” Mitovski said. “We try to keep it really professional. The kitchen is great to learn. You get to learn math, you get to learn science, you get to learn English all in a different way but applying it in the kitchen.
“They walk away with real-life experiences,” Mitovski said. “I recognize attendance, timeliness and work ethic. I concentrate more on life skills and accounting skills.”
In another classroom, students in Ron Holmes’ woodshop class, including sophomore Sumner Hulle, were busy making end tables.
“I already know how to use some of the equipment in here. It’s nice to be able to come in here and do hands-on work,” Hulle said. “I’m learning a bunch of extra stuff because I’m also in robotics.”
The tour also included a stop in David Diebold’s building trades class and Matt Komarowski’s machine trades class.