The yearly Perry High School Career Fair was held Thursday, and a large portion of the student body took part.

The event was organized by Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates (iJAG), which is a program run through the Department of Education. Tina Lutterman and Stacey Walton are the local iJAG representatives for Perry High School, and they did extensive preparation in order to bring in colleges and industries that would appeal to the students. Walton explained, “So prior to the event, we actually had the students fill out a career interest survey that narrowed down the career clusters. Whether it was agriculture, manufacturing, education, those types of things. And based on their interests we went out and selected the employers that we’d want to come to Perry High School.”

Walton said there were around 38 colleges and universities from around Iowa represented at the fair. There was also around 52 presenters and breakout sessions throughout the day that students could attend. Walton added, the college and business representatives were universally complimentary of the Perry students. “The volunteers have had really positive feedback for Perry High School. They said our kids were super respectful, very engaged, and just very excited about the career overall. (We got) very positive feedback on our high school.”

Raccoon Valley Radio was one of the companies at the career fair, represented by Shawn Kenney, who led well-attended breakout sessions on careers in radio.