The Academy of Public Service held a career fair in the Atrium on Tuesday, Jan. 23 to inform students of various career opportunities. To help the event run smoothly, Academy Ambassadors guided interested students to the correct booths.

“Public Service is an academy which many people don’t know about, but it offers a lot of things, like culinary arts, fashion design, nutrition and human services,” Academy Ambassador Maitreyi Vartak ‘20 said. “All of this is an important [part] of society and helps people understand what to do in the future.”

Career Technical Education Academy Specialist Lucy Sanchez helped organize the event by reaching out to professionals in different careers to represent the Public Service Academy. During the fair, Ms. Sanchez walked around and encouraged students to go to different booths and learn about the different areas of public service.

“Going to any career fairs can give students a chance to talk to somebody who personally has a job they might be interested in,” Ms. Sanchez said. “More importantly, they may learn about a job they had never heard of before. If you talk to each of these people at this career fair about their journey to where they are right now, most of them would tell you they never knew that they would be in this particular position. Finding a career pathway isn’t a straight line for most people.”

This event was open to all students during 7th block, which allowed students to attend during lunch. Many teachers also took their classes to walk around and listen to the speakers in order to to broaden their students’ views of different careers in the Public Service Academy.

“I think it’s important [to come to this] because people can have a idea about most jobs, and an idea about what they want to do,” Matthew Chandler ‘19 said.

The representatives of each booth talked with the students about how their job impacts the society and why people should be open to different job opportunities. Booths were set up for students to walk around and explore career paths offered by the Williamson Sheriff’s Office, Lakeline Vision Source, Travis County Tax Office, TopMac IT Solutions, Escoffier Culinary School, Capital Metro, Central Texas Beauty College, City of Austin and The Greater Round Rock Community Foundation.

“In high school, students are the most idealistic and if I can open up a their mind to public service, then I have contributed [to helping them],” Employment Services Specialist Indira Nallapati said. “Students should come to these kinds of events because it opens up their minds to different possibilities. Talking to us can help them understand our journeys and how these journeys can lead to different paths.”