PEKIN (25News Now) - Tuesday morning, students in Tazewell County got a glimpse of possible futures they have in store.
On ‘Future Focus Day’, representatives from different professions talked about what they do before classes started at Pekin Community High School. The goal is to help students decide on a career path after high school, with Tuesday’s topic of ‘College and Career Readiness.’ Some took short field trips to see operations in-person, like manufacturing at Caterpillar and corporate jobs at Amazon.
Pekin’s principal Joel Schmieg says the feedback they’ve gotten from both kids and parents has encouraged the school to keep bringing this format back.
“We realized we wanted to do something extra outside of the regular school day for our students,” he says, “and our teachers and staff are behind it.”
Broadcast news was one of those career paths highlighted. WEEK’s Jon Schoenheider was there to talk about his experience in the field, and share stories from his time at the station.
Kids at the presentations said listening to the speakers helped clarify what choices they want to make moving forward.
“It’s a hard and nerve-wracking experience,” says junior Josie Hamilton, “so I think that this is a great opportunity to actually take it and learn something.”
“They have everything. They’ve got cooking, they’ve got science, they’ve got film,” adds Senior Mason Lewis. “So you can’t say there’s not one thing you find interesting in Future Focus.”
This is one of three days PCHS hosts with emphasis on opportunities for its kids.
Watch the video here: