Our 47th Annual College and Career Night on Oct 3 was a great success!! One of our biggest events each year, we estimate there were around 500 people in attendance including representatives from colleges, universities, business, industry, school district staff, and students and families!
We had around 70 institutions at our event. Some of our local colleges and universities that were in attendance included St. Johns River State College, Santa Fe College, University of Florida and University of North Florida. We also had great technical colleges like First Coast Technical College and Tulsa Welding School. We also had several colleges who traveled from far away: Drexel University, Southern Illinois at Carbondale, and South Georgia State College. We even had some apprenticeship type programs like the Gainesville Electrical Training Alliance and National Aviation Academy.
Our local business and industry always shows up and shows out! Local businesses and industry included: Ameris Bank, Aza Health, Beck Automotive Group, Capital City Bank, Century 21 Triton Realty, City of Palatka, Clay Electric, Covenant Closing and Title Services, Florida Department of Corrections, Douglas Law Firm, Georgia Pacific, HCA Putnam Hospital, Palatka Police Department, Putnam County Ag Extension, Putnam County Board of County Commissioners, Putnam County Fire Department, Putnam County School District, Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, Palatka, Fire Department, Veritas Steel, CertainTeed Gypsum, and Vystar Community Credit Union! Thank you so much for your support of this event!
Students were also able to talk to recruiters from the US Airforce and US Marines. They could also have great conversations with organizations like Girls Can, Take Stock in Children, and Vocational Rehabilitation Services. Students could even register to Vote with members of our local Zeta Phi Beta/Zeta Mu Zeta chapter partnering with the Supervisor of Elections to provide this service at the event. We even showed off our PCSD Aerospace program with demonstrations of one of our flight simulators, thank you Mr. Biddle!
As an added bonus, event attendees could purchase baked goodies from Just a Cookie, enjoy a nice meal from Mom’s Bar B Q food truck, or sample a sassy lemonade from Sassy’s Lemonade food truck!
Students and representatives were all smiles as they left the event. “This event was amazing–it had something for my senior and my sophomore!” one parent shared via an evaluation form. A representative from an organization with table space at the event said, “You just make this better and better each year. We love to come to your fair!” Another representative said, “The fair was great, full of students, and we got a chance to speak with a number of students. The district is doing a great job showing their students the opportunities available.”
So much hard work and great collaboration make this event possible. Without the following people and organizations, this fair would not be the success that it is:
Putnam County School District CTE Department
Palatka Jr. Sr. High School
Seminole Electric
Putnam County School Food Service
Palatka Jr. Sr. High School Custodial Staff
AVID Students and Teachers
Peas and Carrots Catering
Interlachen Jr. Sr. High School Culinary
Beck Automotive Group
Palatka Jr. Sr. High School JROTC
Laura Pavlus with Putnam County Chamber of Commerce
Various PCSD Staff
Kishan Patel
Mom’s Bar B Q
Just A Cookie
Sassy’s Lemonade
Thank you so much for your continued support of this event!
If you attended the event as a student or parent and would like to share with us your thoughts, please click here. We value your feedback!
For more pictures from the event, click here.