The 6th annual African American Youth Career and College Fair was held today at Madison College.
The event was sponsored by both Madison College and Edgewood College and the day provided an opportunity for about 400 area high school youth to learn more about Wisconsin’s 24 private, nonprofit colleges and universities and receive career information from African American professionals and college options.
For the second year in a row the Alumni Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta’s collaborated to help organize the fair. Ronnicia Johnson-Walker, who has been the Delta Education Chair for the past 6 years, said the event went really well. “At the close of registration, we had 228 kids that were registered,” she told Madison365. “We ended up having about 50 or 60 kids register onsite today.”
There were career exploration workshops in business, human services, apprenticeship & trades, law enforcement & protective services, STEM programs, automotive, information technology (IT), and health occupations. The workshops were presented by African-American professionals from around Madison.
“It’s so important to be able to bring in the careers and the speakers this year so the students can see ahead of time what field they might want to go into,” Johnson-Walker said. “It gives them a chance to explore career paths that they might be interested in.”
The keynote speaker was Everett Mitchell, director of community relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and pastor at Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church.
“This is the second year that the Deltas have partnered with Madison College,” Johnson-Walker said. “This is a great partnership. We are able to bring resources that we have in the community and with our sorority. It’s a healthy partnership and we are able to collaborate well and we can all bring our ideas to the table.”
The College and Career Fair presented all seniors attending college in 2016 with an opportunity to win a $500 bookstore stipend to their future college or university by answering an essay question. All essays must be turned in by Friday, March 4, 4 p.m. That essay question is available here.
