Lemon Doroshow has always been interested in a career in law or engineering.
An internship this summer at Broadbent & Associates, a prominent environmental consulting firm in Las Vegas, solidified those desires for the teenager. The “I Can Be” career fair hosted by the Henderson Chamber of Commerce connected him with the firm, where he explored civil and environmental engineering, and how they intersect with law.
“The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) side has always been one that I think prevails in terms of my interest,” Doroshow said. “What has been so conducive to my interest, for me, about this internship is the ability to see how these STEM concepts manifest within the career field I want to go into.”
Doroshow, a recent graduate of the Coral Academy of Science Las Vegas’ Sandy Ridge campus, is headed to Johns Hopkins University in the fall, where he will major in civil engineering.
The internship allowed him experiences that he may not have had otherwise, Doroshow said.
“Being in school is a lot different from being in a career field,” he said.
The career expo returned this year after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It made its debut at Coral Academy, and then continued a few months later at Foothill High School, said Amanda Ahmadzai, the Henderson chamber’s marketing director.
There are two more fairs planned for the fall at other Henderson schools, Ahmadzai said.
“The intent of the program is to showcase career paths to students that they may not be otherwise aware of or exposed to,” she said. “And we pair them up with industry professionals, like Broadbent & Associates, so they get this opportunity to learn about these different fields—different career clusters, as we call them—from the people who work in them.”
It’s also an opportunity for high school students to “face their fears,” Ahmadzai said, whether that means talking to people they don’t know about their career interests, answering questions about those aspirations and so on.
“Those kids have access to this world of possibilities,” she said. “They can have interesting conversations with professionals and learn about what is available to them that they may not have otherwise. How else are they going to learn these things? How are they going to have access to one of the gentlemen who runs Broadbent? It can be difficult to get access to these professionals.”
Since the Henderson chamber’s first “I Can Be” session this year, the organization has faced an overabundance of professional volunteers for the remaining events, Ahmadzai said.
“The advantage to us was just to be seen,” said Kirk Stowers, principal geologist and environmental division manager at Broadbent. “We’re always trying to get out in the community and engage people, so we have a pipeline of interested professionals coming into our field.”
There’s been a lot of positive feedback from students, Ahmadazai noted.
It was beneficial to get a real idea of what a certain career field may look like, compared to preconceived notions from social media or television, Doroshow emphasized.
“To actually know the details and the specifics about how these different careers interact with each other on their day to day, as well as how you might become a professional in these different careers—it kind of gives students … a more in-depth and maybe accurate idea of how different careers work,” he said.
The fair aligns with existing programs at Coral Academy, including one that coordinates work-based learning opportunities for students, like summer internships, so that they can apply what they learn in the classroom outside of it.
“Not only reading from the textbooks or learning the formulas or something, but you want to see where you are using this in (the) real world and in jobs and careers,” said Ercan Aydogdu, executive director and CEO of the Coral Academy of Science Las Vegas.
The expo at Coral Academy was unique because it invited students from eighth through 12th grade, instead of just targeting sophomores like it does typically, officials noted. And, although that may make Doroshow’s story unique, Ahmadzai said she would love to see more stories like his play out.
“We’re a chamber of commerce, we’re just always hoping to grow our membership base, to engage with the workforce—and up and coming workforce—in this manner,” she said. “We’re just so excited that it’s off to such a great restart.”
It’s important that students, especially sophomores in high school for whom the fair is put on, see it as an opportunity to explore career fields and see them in a new light, Doroshow said.
“If I could tell the demographic of this career fair one piece of advice, it would be: take advantage of it,” he said. “Actually, take it seriously. Don’t just drudge your way through it because there are opportunities to be had. And even outside of those opportunities, there’s a lot to learn.”
This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.