Westwood hosted its first Visual Performing Arts (VPA) Job Fair on Tuesday, January 26. The fair allowed VPA students to explore internship opportunities in their intended fields. Through speaking with company representatives at various stations, students were able to gain a better idea about VPA fields and find ways to begin pursuing their dreams even as high school students.

“When you’re a student of the art s, not just visual arts but acting, staging or dance or music, it’s really hard to imagine what people who do that job do every day,” Ms. Lydia Coats, the organizer of the job fair, said. “And so connecting a student who is in the arts with arts businesses so that they can see what that looks like will let them know if they want to pursue that further in high school and on in college.”

Ms. Coats worked with Council of the Arts business partners to arrange for the companies to send representatives that students could ask questions to. Those interested in offering internship opportunities for high schoolers, including the Austin City Ballet, the ACC Arts and Humanities Department, and Texas Performing Arts, set up stations at the fair. Other businesses not there live sent flyers for interested students to pick up. Additionally, a Communication Hub for students whose interests were not represented by the companies at the job fair was set up so that students could email and investigate opportunities during the summer and during the school year.

Ysa Ybarra, a student interested in the graphic design and animation field, attended the event. Through the Communication Hub, Ybarra discovered that there were numerous animation studios located throughout Austin.

“I really wanted to see what businesses were in the area and what career options I had,” Ybarra said. “I didn’t really know if there were any big companies in Austin, but I thought that anything I could find would be really cool.”

Many students applied for job shadowing opportunities, where they would be able to observe the daily lives of VPA artists. Although courses concerning theory and performance parts of VPA fields are offered at Westwood, learning about what it’s truly like to enter careers in VPA is more difficult. Students hoped that through following those already in the field, they would be able to catch a glimpse of their futures if they choose to follow a VPA path.

“Students have so many opportunities these days and it’s great for them to be able to go out into the real world and apply their learning here through the VPA academy everyday,” Ms. Chantel Morrison said. “[The job fair] gives them a chance to narrow down their interests as well as to see the adult side of it.”