Hundreds of students met professionals from a variety of businesses during Selma High School’s career fair Friday. 

Career Tech Director Timothy Strong said it’s important to provide students with options after high school.

“We have colleges and various businesses here to share with the students the opportunities that are available for them right here in our local area,” Strong said. “ A few colleges are 80 miles away and then we have some around the 50 mile radius with Trenholm State Community College and George C. Wallace Community College.”

Students met with employers like Regions Bank, Bush Hog, Surge Staffing, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Concordia College Alabama and many more.

Selma High School juniors Renegia McNeil and Annetta Kennedy both said they were excited about coming to the career fair.

McNeil and Kennedy both look forward to attending George C. Wallace Community College to study cosmetology after they graduate from high school.

“I learned that I would be doing reading and general study classes before I started to take the cosmetology course,” Kennedy said.

McNeil said that the career fair helped her and some of her classmates learn about different opportunities available to them.

“I felt like everyone was doing hair, so it wouldn’t be a place for us who are coming out of high school,” McNeil said “She told me that it is not about anyone else because I may have a quality that someone else might not have.”

Alabama National Guard recruiter Raymond Freeman said the career fair let students know about the wide range of choices, including the military.

“It gives them an opportunity to look forward for the future and develop their own plans and blueprints for their success,” Freeman said. “Without opportunities students don’t understand what track you should take in life.”

Selma High School sophomore Jatlin Giles plans to go into the military after high school and later wants to become an electrician. He said before attending the career fair, he did not know that he could get certified while he was still in high school.

“This helped us find out what we wanted to be in life and what we have to do to get where we want to be,” Giles said. “I found out that I can go into the electrician program in the 11th grade. I’ll be finished in two years when I graduate high school.”