Rankin County High Schoolers Explore Career Options During Annual Career Expo at Hinds CC

PEARL — Six Pisgah High School seniors gathered in a circle, their arms linked shoulder to shoulder. The friends, dressed in denim pants and spring cotton tops, had 22 seconds to pass a hula hoop from one girl to the next without using their hands.

Somehow, the girls completed the difficult task in just 20 seconds, cheering their success. The game was just one way Hinds Community College staff and community vendors engaged about 600 high school juniors and seniors Wednesday, March 19 during the 3rd Annual Rankin County School District Career Expo at Clyde Muse Center on the college’s Rankin Campus.

Hula hooper Hannah Dimartino of Pisgah plans to follow in her mom’s footsteps and attend nursing school at Hinds’ Nursing Allied Health Center in Jackson, crediting the school’s rigorous academics for her choice. Dimartino’s friend, Reese Purvis of Pisgah, said she also plans to study nursing at Hinds, but for a different reason. “I want to be close to family,” Purvis said.

Many Rankin students, however, are not as sure about life after graduation. The expo helps students identify and commit to a career path, said Hinds President Dr. Stephen Vacik.

“We want to plant some seeds that will help them,” Dr. Vacik said as students filed into the center. “They can come here and dream about what their future will look like.”

About 90 university and community business vendors – a record number for the event – showcased programs ranging from Hinds’ two-year vet tech and respiratory care technology curriculums to its Diesel Technology Academy, commercial truck driving school and culinary arts program.

Patti Lewis, a career coach at Brandon High School, said she helps students identify apprenticeships or educational opportunities they will tackle after high school. Lewis was placed at Brandon through Accelerate Mississippi, a program aimed at keeping Mississippi students in the state’s workforce. Every Rankin County high school has at least one career coach through Accelerate, Lewis said.

“At the end of the day, we help students find a job, a good livable wage or help them enlist in the service or education programs to give them the skills they need,” Lewis said.

Outdoors on the Muse Center’s expansive parking lot, exciting career possibilities abounded. The Mississippi State Patrol showed off its mounted patrol, motorcycles, SWAT Team and even a helicopter. Pearl Police Department officers talked to students near a sporty white patrol car with the blue lights on.

Standing next to the helicopter he pilots, Trooper Master Sgt. Andrew Beaver said there are many opportunities for women in aviation. Hinds’ commercial aviation program trains students to be pilots at John Bell Williams Airport near the Raymond Campus. Students also can work toward an associate degree in applied science as part of the aviation maintenance technology program. The school just unveiled a new pilot trainer on Wednesday, a state-of-the-art Piper 101i.

Across the parking lot, Jayden Ross, a junior at Northwest Rankin High School, climbed behind the wheel of a dirt track race car, one of three lured to the expo by Rogers-Dabbs Chevrolet in Brandon. Ross said he felt like he was on a racetrack while sitting in the driver’s seat of the black, open-air vehicle. “I do love fast cars. The ’22 Dodge Challenger is my dream car,” Ross said, adding, “I might be interested in the Hinds diesel technology program.”

Rogers-Dabbs partners with Hinds’ automotive technology program to develop tomorrow’s master technicians, said Benny Hopkins, head of the dealership’s performance department. There are between 6,000 and 10,000 job openings at car manufacturer dealerships across the U.S., Hopkins said. It can be difficult to get 20-year-olds to think about where they will be at 40 but events like the expo help the industry reach young people and share potential career options.

“The jobs are inside, it’s air conditioned, they go home after work every day…the pay for master automotive technicians is good, in excess of $100,000 a year,” Hopkins said.

Back inside Muse Center, Neiko Herron, a junior at Richland High School, worked on opening the airway of a manikin at the Hinds Respiratory Care Technology Program booth. Herron said he eventually hopes to be a pediatrician, and Hinds would be a good place to begin learning more about the human body.

“I was thinking about trying Hinds for two years and then going to a four-year college and then medical school,” Herron said.