News

On May 19 Heritage Southwest Intermediate School District’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Department, in conjunction with Michigan Works! and Southwestern Michigan College, held the second annual MiCareerQuest Cass County.

This event exposed 800 Cass and Van Buren Counties ninth graders from 13 schools to the world of work. This event is “not just a career fair,” but “an interactive career exploration event.”

CareerQuest covered the Dowagiac campus, with Touch a Truck filling half of the parking lot off Cherry Grove Road and hands-on exhibits spilling across Mathews Conference Centers East and West, the auto shop in the Kairis Building and the Barbara Wood Building.

MCC West housed business, agriculture, criminal justice, information technology and hospitality. Larger MCC East displayed manufacturing and engineering.

Tucked away in MCC West was The WRM, a tiny Marcellus radio station.

Slated for the morning rotation through five colored-coded pathways were Edwardsburg, Edwardsburg Alternative Education, Bangor, Gobles, Covert, Dowagiac Pathfinders and the ISD’s North Pointe Center.

Attending the afternoon session were Dowagiac, Cassopolis, Decatur, Marcellus and Hartford.

Jason Smith, supervisor of CTE Academies and Early Middle College for the Heritage Southwest ISD near Cassopolis, said the Cass event is patterned after Kalamazoo’s MiCareerQuest Southwest, which was established more than 10 years ago to serve eighth graders.

Smith said local districts can prepare through Xello, an online K-12 college and career readiness software that unlocks students’ potential by opening their eyes to future possibilities.