Students interested in the culinary arts, stenography, the military, the automotive industry and other career opportunities packed the Hattie Mae White building for the Career and Technical Education College Fair hosted by HISD’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Department. Representatives from the Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service, the Texas Department of Public Safety, The Culinary Institute of America and others were on hand to give students and their parents practical advice on deciding a career path.

Jones High School 11th grader Lashunda Mason, who showed up at the fair with aspiring nurse Krystal Burleson, originally had considered the veterinary sciences, but upon leaving the fair found herself surprised that she was interested in joining the U.S. Army. “I really wanted to sign up for it, but I was like ‘I don’t know,’ ” said Mason. Other students expressed similar sentiments – that the fair exposed them to options they didn’t know existed.

“It’s a way of creating awareness,” Texas Chiropractic College representatives Monique Lewis and Jena Rogers said, when asked why the fair was important. “The most asked question we get is ‘What is a chiropractor?’ ”

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