Granton students learn from alumni at school career fair

By Cheyenne Thomas As students go through middle school and high school, there is a lot of focus put on helping those students find what sort of career they may be interested in after graduation. With 16 career clusters to choose from, it can be a challenge for students to find proper guidance and examples to follow before they move on to careers later in life. On March 8, the Granton Area School District gave students an opportunity to learn from those who came before them, bringing back nearly 40 Granton alumni for a career fair to talk with students about their respective fields of work.

The alumni, ranging in both age and career choices, had the opportunity to talk with students and answer any questions they would have about their work and the path they took to get there. Each alumnus at the career fair was chosen to represent a different career cluster, showing students that those who graduate from Granton High School can really become anything if they put the effort into it.

Before being allowed to walk through the fieldhouse where the event took place and talk one on one with the alumni, the students were able to hear the life stories of four graduates and the career paths they took. Unlike many of their peers, these graduates told the students that their career paths were very unusual compared to the typical pattern of graduating, going to college and finding a job.

For Megan Genteman, a 2008 graduate who now works at Forward Bank, her part-time work as a high schooler led to her life-long career.

“I did not have a traditional career path,” she told the students. “I did not attend college. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I thought, ‘I’m 15; I’m too young to think about that.’ I started working as a part-time teller during school and then full time in the summer. In 2008, after I graduated, I had a shift in my personal life and I decided to just jump into a career and figured I would do college later.”

Over time, she began to try new positions within Forward Bank as she tried to grow. It took some time and trial and error to find what she did and did not like, but the efforts were worth it.

“Now I am the manager of the one who used to be manager to me,” she said.

Unlike Genteman, Eric Sadowska did try college. He was a 1998 graduate, and at the time of graduation, he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do. He attended school at UW-Marshfield for the first year out of high school before deciding to try being a teacher. After four years of schooling, he got his first teaching job and that is when reality sunk in.

“When I got up in front of the class, my only thought was, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing?’” he said. “I left the class and called my parents and told them that this was not for me. They understood and my dad told me that I should come and do what he did. He was a car salesman.”

He applied to work at V& H in Marshfi eld and quickly was hired. As he began training to be a salesman, Sadowska said there was one salesman who caught his eye, one who interacted with customers differently from the others.

“He had been a salesman there for 30 years. I said to myself, ‘I want to find out what he does and follow his path,’” he said. “He was the one who taught me to follow up with people and make deadlines. I have been in one place for 20 years and I learned that you always need to do the little things. If I saw something that needed to be picked up, I would do it.”

Just like his classmate, fellow 1998 graduate Erik Jonas had no idea what to do after high school. Flunking out of college, Jonas said he stayed around Granton for the first few years after graduating, living at his parents' house and trying to figure out his path.

“I didn’t have a dream, so college seemed pointless to me,” he said. “In 2000, that was the year when there were a bunch of forest fires that broke out in Montana. It was then that I thought that maybe I wanted to be a forest firefighter.”

He traveled to Montana, and after two weeks of training, Jonas said he was sent out by helicopter with a backpack and left to battle the fires. Rather than acting as a deterrent, battling the fires only made his desire to be a firefighter burn greater. He returned home afterwards and became a paramedic and fireman at the Marshfield Fire Department where he has been ever since. In 2015, college eventually did pan out for him, as he went back to school to get higher certifications, which the department paid for.

“A lot of companies are looking for quality employees and are wiling to pay to train as long as you show that you are willing to work hard and are invested in the job,” he told the students. “If you show that, then they will invest in you.”

Please see Career fair, page 6

CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO Career fair,

from p. 5 Dr. Alex Lendved was the final alumna to speak to the students. She was a 2004 Granton graduate, and after high school, she went into the military where she served as a combat medic in the 82nd Airborne Division. That gave her a start after high school, but the problems with her path became clear when she returned home after her service was complete.

“I found that my work didn’t translate well into civilian life,” she said. “I went home and I needed a job. I applied to jobs in healthcare, but I didn’t get them. It really hurt my pride.”

After months of searching, she said she was finally offered a job, but one completely different than what she did before.

“Mid-State (Technical College) took a chance on me and offered me a job as a secretary,” she said. “I went from a sergeant in the military who served in Afghanistan to a secretary. But it did lead to where my passion fell, which was to work in education. And I realized that in order to work in education, well, I needed an education.”

As she worked, Lendved said she gradually completed her schooling, earning her associate’s, bachelor’s and doctorate by 2019. As she advanced in her education, she also advanced in her position at Mid-State where she is now Dean of the Marshfield Mid-State campus.

“You never know where your position will lead you to,” she said.

In all of their cases, the alumni told the students that hard work, a good attitude and personality would get them far in life.

“You can train a skill, but you can’t train a personality,” said Genteman. “You need to have the right attitude.”

“Instead of figuring out how to be successful, figure out how to be helpful,” said Sadowska. “You choose how you show up every day at work.”

CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTOS

Students had the chance to walk around the fieldhouse and stop at booths to talk with Granton graduates now employed in each of the 16 career clusters: agriculture, food and natural resources; architecture and construction; arts, audio/video technology and communications; business, management and administration; education and training; finance; government and public administration; health science; hospitality and tourism; human services; information technology; law, public safety, corrections and security; manufacturing; marketing, sales and service; science, technology, engineering and mathematics; and transportation, distribution and logistics. At left, a Granton High School graduate shares about his experiences in the workforce.