Students at Elkins Middle School were able to explore potential occupations and speak with more than 40 area professionals Wednesday as part of a career fair designed just for them.

The career fair allowed students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades to meet with representatives from law enforcement, medical professions, banking, physical therapy, government agencies, education services, media and more. They walked through the entire fair, set up at the Phil Gainer Community Center, adjacent to Elkins Middle School, and then they were able to visit two career stations for 10 to 15 minutes to ask more detailed questions.

Sixth-grader Jessica Ross called the fair “interesting and neat.”

“It’s exciting to learn about new careers and getting into some new professions,” Ross said while visiting with Kelly Sykora, who works for the United States Forest Service at the Bartow location in Pocahontas County.

Other students were checking out the Elkins City Police Department’s table, where interim Elkins Police Chief J.C. Raffety and Patrolman Christopher Boatwright talked about careers in law enforcement.

Raffety has extensive law enforcement experience, serving with the Federal Bureau of Investigations for 30 years. He also served as chief of police in Buckhannon and was a member of the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

“This program is important,” he said of the career fair. “I really support anything you can do with children of any age to get them acquainted with thinking about their future.”

Raffety added he hopes the students will be able to find a career that they are passionate about, the way he did in the FBI.

“I lived my dream, and I’ve enjoyed every law enforcement opportunity. If I could live my life over again, I’d do the same thing,” he said.

Sixth-grader Alaina Gray said she thought Raffety’s work at the FBI was really cool, and she also was interested in zoology.

Fellow sixth-graders Morgan Taylor and Jazmyn Taylor both said they dream of becoming heart surgeons, and they actually dressed up as doctors for the career fair.

Other students included Willow Storey, who said she liked seeing all the different occupations, especially the emergency services; Brooke Tallman, who said she liked nursing and the other professions at Davis Medical Center; and Sienna Chenoweth, who said she is interested in interior design and writing. Chenoweth said the fair was “really neat,” because “it lets you go around and see a lot of things you’ve never done before.”

Representing the banking industry was Hoy Ferguson, commercial loan officer with Davis Trust Co., who said he enjoyed showing old-fashioned piggy banks and check-encoding machines to students while discussing his career.

“Even though they might not know what they’re interested in at this point, it’s great to introduce them to different career fields,” Ferguson said.

Elkins Middle School counselors Jill Zurbuch and Roohi Khan said the event was designed to give students a better understanding of what educational requirements there are for various careers, as well as certain skills.

Zurbuch said the ultimate goal is for students to learn how their interests and academic successes can evolve into opportunities in high school and the work force.

“We’re very happy with the variety and different categories of occupations that participated today, and we are very pleased with the way it turned out,” Zurbuch said, adding that she wanted to thank event sponsor AES Energy Storage for making the career fair possible.

She also wanted to thank all the participating business representatives, parents, school staff and others who volunteered or helped with the career fair. She added Davis Medical Center not only participated in the fair but also provided lunch to the other participants, and that was greatly appreciated.