School to Careers Program coordinator Patti Hyatt, of the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce, discusses the importance of helping students learn about career options March 14, 2024, during the annual Career Connect Conference at the Pendleton Convention Center.

PENDLETON — High school students from Umatilla and Morrow counties traveled Thursday, March 14, to the Pendleton Convention Center for the 2024 Career Connect Conference.

The conference offered more than 460 students the chance to explore their options after high school and was geared toward juniors and seniors.

“The whole point of this is because we would like to give an avenue for kids to understand that there’s other occupations out there than what they just learn in their seats at school,” said Patti Hyatt, School to Careers coordinator for the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce and one of the lead organizers of the event. “And so, we just want to plant a seed.”

Nearly 50 businesses and colleges from the area set up booths or stations to talk to students about what it takes to be successful in their industries, and there were about 60 breakout sessions throughout the day for students to attend.

Hyatt said there are many opportunities for students exiting high school based in Eastern Oregon that many have never considered, and the conference exposes them to some of those possible new ideas.

Student perspectives

For Mark Harns, a 19-year-old senior at Irrigon Junior/Senior High School, the conference expanded his thoughts on career opportunities.

“Coming to this event, I didn’t expect to want to go to college, but now, going to these three classes, there are a lot of things here that’s convinced me maybe I should go,” Harns said. “Maybe I should go out of my comfort zone.”

Harns said he attended to learn more about what options are out there and felt the conference gave him exactly that.

“I’m starting to learn a lot more stuff, and that’s always a good thing, you know,” he said. “It’s going to help me in the future with getting jobs.”

Plus, he mentioned, he got out of school to attend, which is “always a plus.”

Charlie Claphan-Oeder, an 18-year-old senior at McLoughlin High School in Milton-Freewater, said she plans to attend Blue Mountain Community College. She came to the conference to check in at the BMCC booth to learn more about the steps she needs to register and apply for federal student aid.

“They gave me some helpful information,” she said. “I want to (be a) veterinary technician. I love animals and I would love to help them out. I wanted to get information on what to do next.”

A chance to network

The Pendleton Fire and Ambulance Department brought two of its large fire engines to the convention center parking lot for the conference. Meghan Montee, an advanced emergency medical technician who has worked for the department for about six years, said they work closely with Blue Mountain Community College to train emergency responders. Presenting emergency response — firefighting and life support — as a viable career path to students is important, she said.

“I think it’s very valuable because then they get a sense of what we do,” she said. “It’s not as scary as they think it is, and it’s very obtainable.”

Montee said the department usually gets several students who are interested after the career fair.

Beyond the class at BMCC to become an emergency responder, she said, the fire department has a resident intern program for young people to get hands-on experience at the same time.

Anna Browne, workforce development manager with the Port of Morrow, helped organize the event.

“This is such a great way to get in front of a diverse group of students all in one shot and all in one day, so I think the best thing about it is they feel like their time is worth it as well as ours,” she said.

Browne said many businesses are able to connect with students who then pursue work experience with them. And it’s beneficial for the students too, even if they don’t leave with a new career in mind.

“I think for some students, something like this is kind of overwhelming, but it’s great practice for them to step out of their comfort zone and talk to an employer,” Browne said.

Carrie Wetter works in talent acquisition for Union Pacific Railroad and often hires employees based out of Hermiston and La Grande. As part of the Eastern Oregon community, she said, it was important to Union Pacific to come to the conference to find local talent.

“Oftentimes at the railroad, we’re in everyone’s backyard, but they don’t think of us as an employer and the opportunities that we have, whether it be a conductor or mechanic or construction, welding opportunities,” Wetter said.

She said she tried to present career ideas that students hadn’t considered before.

“I guess that’s my biggest takeaway — that they just walk away with more availability to them, whether it’s going right into a community college or a four-year (university) or going right into the trades,” she said.

Summiting the mountain of careers

Browne echoed Wetter. Umatilla and Morrow counties have “great work options for people just coming out of school or looking to transition careers,” she said, so the conference is a chance to offer alternatives to what students are maybe already aware of.

Local sponsors supported the conference, the Pendleton Catering Co. provided lunch through a grant, and Amazon Web Services gave all participants notebooks and helped cover the cost of the motivational speaker and the event space.

That speaker, John Beede, is a mountain climber and author who spoke about the students taking control of their lives and climbing whatever version of mountains they face. His engaging speech started with him standing on chairs at the back of the room and working his way to the front during some call and response engagement with the students.

Browne said she was grateful to the sponsors for making the talk possible and the vendors for engaging with the students.

Hyatt, with the Pendleton Chamber, said the approximately six months of work to provide this opportunity to almost 500 students across the two counties is all with the goal of planting seeds.

“Hopefully,” she said, “they walk away with a little idea of where they want to go when they get out of high school.”