Dubois County Career Cruise Sets Sail in 2022

By Kris Norton

Dubois County – For the first time, a county-wide initiative called the Career Cruise, will aim to guide eighth graders to future career paths.

On Thursday, April 7^th, eighth graders from all five Dubois County School Corporations will meet at the Jasper High School Auxiliary Gym to better explore potential career paths.

The inaugural Career Cruise is a part of an on-going initiative to tie students to local businesses, says Forest Park Junior/Senior High School Career Counselor Kerri Dilger.

“The idea is that the eighth graders get an idea what kind of jobs are available to them after they graduate high school, or potentially after they graduate college,” Dilger said. “If, they chose to stay local and live here in Dubois County or surrounding counties.”

To date, local businesses and organization will occupy 57 booths, representing 50 individual industries. In a series of “mini job shadows” each student will spend approximately five minutes at each booth – each student is required to visit each booth. Dilger says that while playing into the ‘Cruise’ theme, students will rotate to different docks and ports.

“The event is organization by career clusters so when the kids get there, there will be different areas and then we have our different industries outlined by different clusters,” Dilger said. “To play on the idea of a Career Cruise, the different career clusters are different docks and ports. So, when the kids arrive at the cruise, they’ll start at a certain dock, and that dock will have anywhere from six to eight industries.”

“They’ll have some time to explore within that dock, talk to those industries, and see what kind of things they’d offer within that job,” Dilger added.

Diagram of different docks and ports featured in the 2022 Career Cruise.

To ensure that the Dubois County students get an accurate representation of the industries and jobs while having fun, Dilger says that organizations are planning on bringing in interactive opportunities.

“The goal is that it’s really interactive,” Dilger said. “Hopefully each booth, and each industry will have something for the kids to do that is a representation of what it would be like to be on that job.”

“VUJ is bringing one of their robotic arms for kids to be able maneuver and see; we have a booth in our communications and arts area that’s bringing a life-size loom,” Dilger added.

In addition, the Career Cruise will offer prizes and incentives to promote interaction and participation.