It’s C3 Fair Time at Brody Middle School
Brody Middle School hosted more than 30 organizations at their annual C3 (College, Career and Community) Fair.
You better have things figured out by the time you leave middle school, right?
Of course not, but it’s never too soon to start browsing life’s possibilities. At Brody Middle School that’s the spirit of today’s second annual C3 (College, Career and Community) Fair.
Thirty-two colleges, universities, vocational options and community service organizations set up shop in a makeshift mall of opportunity where the school gym usually is. Everything from the Blank Park Zoo to the Des Moines Fire department was represented.
There was plenty of swag to be had for the taking; pens, lanyards, candy, bumper stickers and the like, but the booths drawing the steadiest flows of traffic were the Des Moines Police Department and the US Army – must’ve been the uniforms. Kids had no qualms about dropping down and giving the soldiers 5, 10, 15; as many pushups as they could. (Maybe if the Verizon table had been passing out free phones …)
Meanwhile an assortment of Iowa colleges passed out catalogs and laid their groundwork. They might have had a tougher sell as academicians so soon after the Brody students finished with last week’s annual Iowa Assessment but many of these kids will be ripe for campus life in a few short years.
Two of the ambassadors handing out maps to the fairgoers were 8th graders who seem certain of where they’re headed.
Jenna Dace not only knows that she wants to be a teacher, “I want to teach 2nd grade and go to Iowa State,” she declared.
It’s simple really. She likes kids and she likes school.
Marina Cruz sees the world differently. “I am going to be a police officer,” she said. “I thought about joining the FBI but then I’d have to go too far away.”
When the pair finished their shifts working the door they headed inside, Marina bee-lining to the DMPD table and Jenna to the Cyclones’.
The idea isn’t to get the kids to make up their minds, according to Brody IB Coordinator Timm Pilcher, it’s just to get them thinking.
“Middle school is the stage where we stop being strictly children,” he said. “It’s a good time to suggest thinking about all of the options for the future and what’s necessary to keep them open heading into high school.”
Indeed, not all of the reps were from adult or even collegiate organizations. Lincoln High School was there to talk about earning silver cords at high school graduation through community service and Central Campus was spreading the word about the Career & Tech Institute that’s within easy reach of DMPS middle schoolers.
The future, as the saying goes, is now. Today, especially, at Brody.
