Career event at JHS focuses on importance of literacy in work
From wildlife management to cosmetology, law and serving in the U.S. Navy, Jamestown High School students learned at Career/Literacy Day Wednesday that many careers require good reading and writing skills.By: Kari Lucin, The Jamestown Sun
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From wildlife management to cosmetology, law and serving in the U.S. Navy, Jamestown High School students learned at Career/Literacy Day Wednesday that many careers require good reading and writing skills.
“I thought it was a good day, and a lot of the presenters are excited to have been here, and they like working with the kids,” said Shelly Moltzen, chairperson of the JHS Literacy Committee. “And I think it’s a good community-and-school connection.”
The Literacy Committee organized the event in cooperation with JHS guidance personnel. More than 600 students in grades 9-12 listened to more than 45 speakers from diverse fields.
The last time the school had a similar event was in 2005, Moltzen said.
This time, the career fair focused on literacy, in an attempt to show students the relationship between reading, writing, speaking and listening and potential jobs they might have in the future.
Abby Wenzel, a JHS senior, learned about the education required to become an emergency medical technician, and what an EMT’s duties are.
“I liked it, it was a lot of fun,” Wenzel said.
P.J. Hardy, of Jamestown Area Ambulance, said she enjoyed giving the presentation to Wenzel and the other students, too.
“They ask very good questions. They seem very interested in this career,” Hardy said, noting many of them considered it a stepping-stone to becoming a nurse or a doctor.
Wildlife management, law and the church
Kim Hanson, a retired wildlife manager, spoke to full classrooms of students about his work.
In the past, ranchers would kill problem predator animals such as bears by leaving out honey laced with strychnine, Hanson said.
However, any other animal that ate the honey would also die. By specifically taking the bears that were a problem, wildlife managers were able to save the lives of the other animals — including the bears that weren’t bothering the sheep.
Hanson also spent time in the Aleutian Islands, where he and a partner were tasked with trapping and shooting invasive arctic foxes that had been deliberately transplanted onto an island by people in the late 1800s. The foxes preyed on the native bird population.
Hanson and his partner spent 10 weeks in a cabin on an uninhabited island solving the problem.
“I’d never even seen the ocean until they dropped me off out there on an island in the Bering Sea,” Hanson said.
His other work included writing environmental impact statements, enforcing hunting laws and dealing with water management policies and politics.
The Rev. Shawn Bowman, senior pastor at Victory Lutheran Brethren Church, spoke to students about how he uses sentence diagramming and other literacy-related skills to create his sermons.
“English … is the main medium we have to communicate, so that we can speak to them the Gospel of Christ,” Bowman said.
In another classroom, Fritz Fremgen, Stutsman County state’s attorney, explained the courtroom dynamic of conflict and criticism to students during his presentation.
He emphasized the importance of a good attitude, and of staying calm and collected in the face of verbal attacks.
“If you practice ‘If you’re pushed, you pushed back,’ you’re going to be in trouble,” Fremgen warned.
Eathan Gumke, a sophomore at JHS, said he learned about how difficult it is to get into law school and about what types of jobs in the field would be available in Jamestown.
“I just think it’s a good program to advance literacy, which I think is important in all fields,” Fremgen said of Career/Literacy Day.
Sun reporter Kari Lucin can be reached at 701-952-8453
or by email at
klucin@jamestownsun.com
Tags: local news, news, education, literacy
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