CARIBOU, Maine — A question that weighs heavily on the minds of many high school students is, "Who do I want to become?" At 18 years old and younger, it can be difficult to know exactly the right path to take after graduation. That's why events like career fairs can be so helpful and eye-opening. In Maine, it's a silver lining of the pandemic.
The first statewide Maine Virtual Career Fair is taking place from Monday, May 17 through Friday, May 21. Throughout the middle of the week, four simultaneous live career sessions are happening every 30 minutes from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for a total of 188 sessions, which feature different businesses and organizations from a number of industries around the state. The goal is to keep them Maine-central, so students can see what kind of career opportunities are nearby and consider staying in the Pine Tree State for the long haul.
"There's a lot of businesses in Maine that students have no idea that we have and a lot of types of businesses that they don't know that we have -- that they think you have to go elsewhere for," Samantha Brink, the event co-chair for the fair, explained.
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This event is also designed to help improve equity among high school students, particularly in more rural areas where kids may not have as many opportunities to access businesses. Organizers say schools from Madawaska to York County are taking part in the event this week. Based on registrations, they expect to reach more than 8,000 Maine students in grades nine through 12.
"When students have those real conversations, they can find connections and move forward in those careers -- or maybe it gives them just a reason to get their high school diploma," said fellow event co-chair Sheree Inman.
On Wednesday, a woman from Maine with a long list of impressive accomplishments presented at the fair: NASA astronaut Jessica Meir of Caribou. Right now, she is working in Houston in a ground role at the astronaut office, supporting the chief astronaut for all things related to Space X, making sure to relay technical information to the crew office and representing the crew perspective.
Despite her busy schedule and inability to travel to Maine because of the pandemic, Meir said she wanted to take the time to talk to students, even if just virtually, to "help inspire the next generation of explorers and scientists", noting sometimes the impact you have on someone is bigger with a commonality -- like being from Maine.
"If you can look up to someone that you can identify with -- whether it be they look like you, they have a background similar to yours, they grew up in the same place as you -- I think it's easier to identify that dreams really can come true," Meir told NEWS CENTER Maine. "I was just a five-year-old kid growing up in a small town in Maine, saying I wanted to be an astronaut -- and there's no magic reason why it ended up happening for me, other than that I identified that passion, and I worked really hard to get there."
Meir said she thinks the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) are important for the younger generation, noting it gives students a wide range of options to pursue. She says she and her colleagues at NASA all have different and unique backgrounds but share the STEM foundation. For Meir, any roadblocks along the way have been well worthwhile.
"Getting to the International Space Station in the fall of 2019 -- it was even more incredible than I ever imagined, and immediately when I arrived, even though it was a lot of hard work, and of course there were setbacks and frustrations and failures for me along the way -- at that moment, I could say to everybody it was definitely worth it," Meir remarked.
The Maine Virtual Career Fair was originally created to replace the annual in-person career fair at South Portland High School during the pandemic, but organizers say they hope it will become an annual event to coincide with other in-person fairs.
To take part, schools did have to register either as groups or individual students. The cost per person is one dollar (to run the platform), but there is a scholarship program set up to cover that amount. To learn more, you can click here.