By Payton Tholstrup

Nick Brummet, the school counselor at Clay Center Community Middle School (CCCMS), realized there was a need for students to explore different careers as they began to plan for their high school and post-secondary experiences. He created a program called “Career Chats” prior to the pandemic, and brought it back last year.

The goal of the program is to expose 8th grade students to different types of work as well as make connections with people in the area that they could potentially job shadow or have an internship experience with during their high school years. “Career chats also allow us to discuss the different career pathways that are offered at the high school and potential classes that students could enroll in that would give them a good foundation before heading into the workforce or post-secondary education,” Brummet said.

Career chats are every Thursday during study lab time and go until mid-March before the 8th graders enroll for their freshman year of high school. Brummet personally reaches out to community members and aims to have one speaker for each of the 16 career clusters. He added that they also put a sign-up through email, their Facebook page, and Grow Clay County.