I spent yesterday volunteering at Denver Public School’s 8th grade career fair at the National Western Stock Show. The event was about 4 hours and roughly 4,000 students attended throughout that time. This was my first year volunteering for it and I didn’t quite know what to expect.
I ended up helping wrangle classes of students into rows to prepare to leave for the day. My role involved handing out surveys, collecting raffle tickets and surveys, and generally trying to manage the students whiling waiting for buses. Managing 8th graders is quite the task. They didn’t want to sit down. They didn’t want to fill out the survey. They didn’t want to wait patiently.
Oh middle school, I had forgotten how insane those children are. They really aren’t great at listening to authority. They’re full of emotions and energy and it just spills out of them.
Still, there were some really cute kids. Many of them dressed up in ties and dresses. It was so sweet to see. One kid told me he got “a personal invitation” to visit and speak with these two companies. I asked him how he felt about that and he said “I feel GREAT!” Love his enthusiasm.
It was a fun but tiring day. I feel privileged that my manager thought it was a good idea for me to volunteer. In previous jobs, the thought of volunteering during work time would not even have crossed my mind as a possibility. Working with Denver Public Schools has allowed me to see that work can be flexible and lead to growth.
I’d love to volunteer for the career fair next year but perhaps next time I could be on the floor. There were some pretty cool looking booths when I walked by them.
Just Lauren 