MERIDEN — Platt High School hosted a bilingual career exploration fair so Meriden high school students and parents could learn more about different types of careers available in the area.
“We organized this event because we really want parents to be part of the process,” said Marissa Cardona, college and career coordinator with Meriden schools’ Success Academy. “The event is available for all students in grades ninth through 12th.”
Different organizations and businesses spoke about the opportunities they provide for high school students. Some of them were Meriden-Wallingford Chrysalis, Middlesex Community College, the Spanish Community of Wallingford and Liberty Bank.
The event had two sessions, the first session in English and a second session in Spanish. Free dinner was included. Local Mexican restaurant Mr. Taco provided burritos, chips, and quesadillas for the event.
Damaris Garcia, manager at the New Haven Liberty Bank, told students about different career options at Liberty such as finance, technology, marketing, human resources, their call center and more.
“The best part about a career in banking is that you can ultimately choose from a wide range of roles beyond the familiar branch positions,” she said. For more information, visit https://www.liberty-bank.com/careers.
Asi Carmeli, director of human resources at Hobson & Motzer, says that the company manufactures high volume metal parts. The company started in Meriden 111 years ago and now has two facilities in Durham and Wallingford.
“What we offer high school graduates is an opportunity to start a career with us,” Carmeli said. “We will take someone straight out of high school and help them develop a career and find what they like to do. We train them on our dime.”
Carmeli said that one of their best engineers, Benjamin Díaz, started as a machine operator straight out of high school.
Díaz is now a senior quality engineer at Hobson & Motzer. He came to the United States at 16, speaking little English. He got a job at 18 at Hobson & Motzer, and has been with the company for 23 years. At Hobson & Motzer, Díaz was able to go to college and build a career.
“At the beginning, it was a challenging road,” he said. “Little by little I realized that hard work pays off.”
For more information on the career opportunities, visit https://www.hobsonmotzer.com/careers/.
“I came to this event because I wanted to see what career opportunities were available,” said Hassan Jehanjar, Platt sophomore. “I want to be a pilot for either Delta or American Airlines but it’s good to see what other jobs are available.”
Jehanjar says that although he’s only a sophomore, he wants to get a head start exploring different types of careers. Right now, his goal is to become an airline pilot. He’s had that goal since he was only six years old.
“We are here because we want everyone to know their options once they graduate,” Cardona said.