Sutton Career Day shows students how quickly costs add up

What does a job look like from day to day? How does someone get into that field? And once a paycheck arrives, how far does it go?

Students explored those questions Wednesday, Sept. 23, during the Sutton Area Chamber of Commerce’s eighth annual Career Exploration Day at Sutton Public Schools. The event brought speakers into classrooms, sent seventh- and ninth-grade students on business tours and gave students a chance to work through the financial decisions of adult life with Reality U.

In small-group sessions, speakers discussed their work, the training it requires and the paths they took into their careers. Kim Lemkau and Preston Franzen represented agriculture; Blake Schmer and Bailey Seaton spoke about health science; Tristan Hoffaker and Diane Smith represented communications and information. Students also heard from Elizabeth Garza in business, marketing and management; Nao Trejo, Brett Gibson and Eric Aksamit in skilled and technical sciences; and Ted Griess and Ben Venteicher in human sciences.

Hoffaker, Schmer, Jackson Perrien and Franzen also took part in panel discussions, giving students another opportunity to hear about career paths and ask questions.

For some students, exploration continued outside the school. Seventh-graders toured Cornerstone Bank, Cornerstone Insurance, CPI, Paint & Paper Palace and Off tion. Ninth-graders visited Jim’s Agri-Air, T-L Sutton Irrigation & Repair and Central Nebraska Wood Preservers. Brandy VanDeWalle and Holli Alley from Nebraska Extension also participated in the day.

Reality U brought the question of earning a living into sharper focus. In the financial literacy program, students imagine themselves at age 26 and receive a scenario with a monthly income and circumstances that may include debt or family responsibilities. They make decisions about expenses while trying to keep their budgets from falling below zero.

Community volunteers staffed every area of Sutton’s activity. Ty and Anna Itzen helped students work through food costs, Michele Gibson and Kathy Griess covered child care, and Sutton Area Chamber of Commerce President Monica Smith and Annette Drummond helped with housing. Other stops included utilities, transportation, insurance, clothes and hair, student loans, phone and entertainment choices, emergency funds and investments. Volunteers also helped students facing an unexpected life event or a budget that no longer worked.

Again and again, adults working at the stations remarked that students had not realized how much everyday things cost or how quickly the expenses add up. One student said he had to get a second job in the simulation to afford both a car and groceries.

His experience captured the point of the exercise. A car may make it possible to get to work, but paying for it affects what is left for food. Housing comes with utility bills. Insurance, child care or an unexpected expense can change a budget that seemed manageable just a few decisions earlier. Students could see those connections for themselves and adjust their choices when the numbers did not work.

The career sessions and business tours showed students a range of work close to home. Reality U asked them to look beyond a job title and consider what their income might need to support. Together, the activities gave students a fuller picture of the choices ahead without expecting them to have their futures figured out now.

Brooke Marshall organized Career Exploration Day with help from Smith. Marshall also credited Jason Cline, Jason Cafferty, Ashley Ulmer and Sutton’s junior high and high school teachers for helping make the event possible.