Students get help with life after high school at college fair

Havre High School students were bused to Montana State University-Northern Monday to explore their options in life after high school.

Many universities had representatives at Northern‘s gymnasium from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, including Western Dakota Tech, Missoula College, Montana State University and the University of Jamestown.

Noncollege organizations and institutions were represented as well. The Montana Academy of Salon Professionals, the Bank of North Dakota, the National Guard and the Air National Guard were giving information about their respective groups.

Spencer Burck, an admissions counselor from the University of Jamestown, said this was his first college fair tour.

“It’s a good opportunity to meet future students and give them information about the university,” Burck said. “I love going to different colleges and meeting new students.”

Burck said the ultimate goal of the college fair was the hope of increasing enrollment at his college.

When asked if the fair was effective in this regard, he said, “Yes, absolutely.”

National Guard Master Sgt. Matthew Pettis was handing out information and answering questions from possible soldiers.

“If they come to the table, you know they’re interested,” Pettis said. “This way, you don’t have to randomly call people at home.”

Pettis said his table usually gets many visitors. Once they fill out a form with their contact information, the National Guard will file it and use it to contact the students to talk about their career choices after high school.

A representative from Grand Canyon University, Whitney Clark, said high school students “get to hear about universities they’ve never heard about before” at the career fair.

Stacy Beaverhousen, a Havre High School senior, said she thought the fair was a good idea for high school students.

“You have more choices than you did before,” Beaverhousen said. She added she plans on attending Northern unless she gets offered a better deal by another college.

Justin Miller will be graduating from Havre High in the spring as well but is unsure which college he wants to attend.

Miller said he would walk away from the fair with information that is important to his future.

“You get to explore your options. (The information at the fair) will help me decide what direction I might lean to.”

The Northern college fair is the first event of a three-week tour organized by the Montana Post Secondary Educational Opportunities Council.

“The MPSEOC provides a lot of resources to students,” Jim Potter, Northern’s drector of university relations, said. “A large percentage of Northern’s inquiry pool comes from these events.”

The tour will hit many colleges and high schools around Montana. Northern will have a table set up at each of them, gathering contact information from high school students from all over Montana.