The Wagner Community Memorial Hospital-Avera sponsored an eighth annual 8th Grade Career Fair on Thursday, January 18, 2018 at the Wagner National Guard Armory. Partnering with the South Dakota Department of Health, the event also included “Camp Med Lanes”, which featured several different healthcare career choices. The event was coordinated by hospital employee, Connie Kaufman RN, BSN.

Eighth graders must select career paths for high school registration; thus, the goal of the career fair is to expose students to the wide variety of educational opportunities and career paths available to them. The emphasis was hands-on activities which were directly related to the promoted careers. A variety of career choices were present, including exhibitors from local and regional businesses as well as South Dakota colleges. Students were able to view weapons used by the National Guard; view the SD Highway rollover simulator; simulate compounding medication; simulate welding; demonstrate sealing a tooth model; demonstrate removing skin stitches; hold an anatomical structure of the human heart as well as walk through a 3-D interactive heart, in addition to many other hand-on opportunities.

Approximately 378 students participated from 17 area schools. The schools that attended were: Andes Central, Armour, Avon, Bon Homme; Burke, Corsica-Stickney, Dakota Christian, Freeman, Gregory, Hanson; Irene-Wakonda, Marty Indian; Menno, Netherland Reformed Christian, Platte-Geddes, Tripp-Delmont and Wagner.

Exhibitors included: Avera Home Medical; C & B Operations; Charles Mix Community Health; Commercial State Bank; Delta Dental; SDSU Extension; Mitchell Technical Institute-multiple programs; Mount Marty-College of Nursing; SD Geological Survey Program; SD Highway Patrol; SDSU Extension; SDSU College of Pharmacy & Nursing; Sioux Falls Fire & Rescue; SD Game Fish & Parks; South Central Educational Cooperative; Lake Area Technical Institute; USD College of Physical Therapy; Photography by Denelle; Dakota State University; Wagner/ Lake Andes Ambulance; Wagner Indian Health Service; National Guard-Wagner Unit and Wagner Community Memorial Hospital-Avera.

Thank you to the City of Wagner for the use of the Armory and Russell and staff for assistance in preparation/clean up; Fort Randall Telephone for providing wifi; Wagner National Guard for providing rolls/donuts for the exhibitors and assisting in cleanup and Buche Foods for donating water for the exhibitors/students. An exhibitor meal was sponsored by Wagner Community Memorial Hospital-Avera. We would like to extend a special thanks to the exhibitors for the interesting, interactive displays and to the school counselors for bringing the students. Thank you to both the exhibitors and schools for the abundance of support to make the career fair a success!

Any business, agency or educational entity that would like to be included next year as a career fair exhibitor should contact Connie Kaufman at the Wagner Community Memorial Hospital-Avera at 384-3611.