TAF@Saghalie College and Career Fair Brings Opportunities for Students to Connect with Future Schools and Employers
It’s the calm before the storm – the large gym at TAF@Saghlie is lined with tables from colleges — UW Tacoma, Central Washington University, and WSU, to companies sharing future careers, like Delta Dental, to community-based entrepreneurs like Lamont Styles. All wait quietly, awaiting the flood of middle school and high school students, ready to ask their questions about all the opportunities awaiting them post-graduation.
TAF@Saghalie’s college and career fair is the most recent iteration of TAF’s to connect its students to opportunities that broaden their horizons and explore what’s possible. It harkens back to TAF’s origins when the org was focused on tech literacy and summer internship programs: connecting the most marginalized students in the public school system to opportunities where their skills and education are valued. And, to create a future that excites them and ignites them to make a difference.
Part of what makes this career fair unique are the relationships students get to build with long time TAF partners – like Santiago Valdez, a dental hygienist with Delta Dental, or Lamont Styles. Not only are they opening the door to students by showing what professionals in their community are doing to support themselves, but also how to create real and tangible change within a system that so often forgets students that come from marginalized backgrounds.
" I've been volunteering in the Federal Way Public Schools for over 15 years. You can't say that you want change... participate and be the change. So that's why I come back because we need that representation (in schools).”
Partners also have an opportunity to put on workshops. UW Tacoma took the time to help students walk through the college application process and scholarship offerings. Delta Dental – a returning favorite – showed students exactly what it takes to be a dental hygienist with hands on instruction, dental coats, and tools! Part of why Valdez comes back and teaches these workshops, is to really show the abundance of opportunities just waiting for students if they have the courage to try.
“We have such a big need in our current communities right now for oral health providers,” Valdez states. “The opportunity to sit here and inspire the next generation of our future oral health leaders is amazing.”
Simply connecting students with opportunities, however, isn’t always enough. TAF knows a huge part of making these career fairs a success is connecting students’ long-term goals to their day-to-day education and one-to-one mentorship. This is why TAF puts a large part of its focus on pairing the professional connections with hands on opportunities to be leaders. Opportunities like being a Student Ambassador with our onsite Leadership and Enrichment Coordinator, Makiah Reed, show students how to lead together, and to uplift their peers while representing their school.
There is also the care that comes with consistent follow-up from our Postsecondary Readiness Program Manager, Hannah Siitia, to walk through the scholarship process, take fieldtrips to college campuses, and work hand in hand with TAF@Saghalie’s guidance counselors to make a graduation plan.
After 30 years of practice, TAF knows it’s the relationships and intentionality that makes these experiences stick. It’s not just checking the box to say it’s been done – it’s connecting all TAF does (including the College and Career Readiness fair!) to the greater whole of transformative education.
Transformative Education is Possible When We Build it Together
