Firefighter, nurse, mayor? South Bend professionals teach students about their careers

SOUTH BEND — An array of professionals from nurses to librarians to the mayor of South Bend gathered in the cafeteria of Darden Elementary for the purpose of educating students about multiple career pathways to choose from.

Darden Elementary’s fifth grade class was separated into groups of about seven students each who rotated around the cafeteria to learn about different career fields from local professionals. 

Principal Patricia Karban said fifth graders were selected to attend the event to start thinking about their next steps moving into middle school and high school. 

“Our fifth graders here are moving onto middle school next year, so we’ve been working with a lot of different careers from kindergarten,” she said. “This is a time that they can actually meet people from the community that are in those careers. We want to get them to experience it at an earlier age."

Earl Townsend Jr., the educational director of the Martin Luther King Senior Men’s Club, gathered professionals for Career Day on Friday from a wide range of fields including Chase Bank, the library, Health RX Pharmacy, the South Bend Police Department and local news station, WNDU-TV, to give kids options.

“We want these kids to understand there are careers for you to do, not just basketball and not just a rapper," Townsend said. "Every kid inside has some type of skill, but they don’t know about it yet.” 

Mayor James Mueller, who attended the Career Day to speak with kids about his job, talked about the importance of exposing kids to different career fields early. 

“Kids want to be in sports, streaming or gamers, but it’s important to start thinking about other career opportunities,” he said, saying that kids can think about how their favorite subject in school can translate into a career. 

South Bend Police's community resource officers Joseph Cole and Jarveair Bourn facilitated a discussion with students as they passed out soft mini footballs for whoever wanted to ask a question. They discussed different experiences they've had on the job.

"I even pulled someone out of the St. Joe River once," Cole said. A student's jaw dropped.

Another student asked Cole what his hardest mission was.

"It's hard when people are crying," he said. "You want to help them as best as he can." Cole discussed the reason he decided to become a police officer, saying it was simply because he wanted to help people.

Another group of students gathered around the display of firefighter gear as firefighters Drew VanDeWielle and Jean Gomez taught students about their jobs. 

“Do you know what to do when you see flashing lights?” VanDeWielle asked.

“Stop!” said the kids. “Turn to the right.” 

He nodded. VanDeWielle started to explain how to become a firefighter, telling them to get good grades in school.

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“How heavy is this?” asked a student pointing to the self-contained breathing apparatus. The SCBA contains 30 minutes of air, not oxygen, Gomez said, which is highly flammable. 

“It’s 75 pounds,” VanDeWielle replied. “How much do you weigh?” 

“80 pounds,” she said. 

“It’d be like having you on my back, but the weight would be more distributed,” he said. 

“How can you run like that?” she asked. 

“We try not to run,” he said. 

The kids lined up to try it on. Jayceon said it was heavy, but Tumariana and Tinayia disagreed. 

Tumariana and Tinayia said they’re considering becoming firefighters. Tinayia said she'd like to be a firefighter to wear the gear and help people, but for Tumariana, it’s about the challenge. 

“It’s a lot of training and I like a challenge,” she said. 

Gomez, a fire and life safety educator, said the fire department tries to educate as much as possible. 

The South Bend Fire Department gives presentations to local schools about fire extinguisher training and having an escape plan. Gomez recommends extending fire education at home, encouraging families to have fire drills at home. 

Another purpose of coming to schools to educate students about fire safety is to build that trust as friends. 

“I’m your friend,” Gomez said. “I want you to give me a high five, but when I have my gear on, I’m the same person. If I’m in your house, in my gear, I want you to do the same thing. I don’t want you running away from me. I want you to come to me and give me a high five.” 

After Career Day, the students will create a project based on the career that most appeals to them. 

“We always have some reflection time," Karban said. "Our students will reflect on what career they felt drawn to that day and what inspired them. They’ll look at researching it a little more and create something from it.” 

Karban said students could create a slideshow or a poster to use different ways to show their learning by allowing teachers to have conversations with those students about that career path.

“It’s all about building relationships with the people here today,” she said.