ABOVE: Brenna Cutler with AGCO speaks to Martin County West student Braden Lenz on Wednesday morning in the Fairmont High School gym during Area Career Exploration (ACE).

FAIRMONT– Nearly 400 students from nine area schools and 60 unique businesses with a total of 149 representatives had the opportunity to take part in Area Career Exploration (ACE) on Wednesday morning at Fairmont High School. Now in its 17th year, the event aims to show students what kind of employment opportunities are available locally.

Today ACE is a partnership between the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce, Minnesota Valley Action Council (MVAC), Fairmont Area Schools and Fairmont Economic Development Authority (FEDA).

A lot of planning and coordination goes into the event. Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce President Kandi Menne said there were six different “career clusters.”

“We had experts from pretty much every category,” Menne said.

The career clusters include: agriculture, food and natural resources; arts, audio, video and technology; transportation, distribution, logistics, engineering, manufacturing and technology; health science and technology; human services; business management and administration.

Some of the businesses and organizations present on Wednesday included Mayo Clinic Health System, Cress Refrigeration, the city of Fairmont, Bolton & Menk and AdMfg.

Ruth Cyphers, owner of AdMfg, said she likes that ACE allows for interaction with students and therefore lends a teaching component.

“Teaching them about design, branding, advertising and marketing,” Cyphers said.

She said it’s also nice to let interested students know that they can come in and job shadow at the business.

“That really tells them if they should go into it or not,” Cyphers said.

Prior to the students going into the gym to see the various business booths, there is a panel of area graduates who share their education and employment journey with the students.

Tammie Hested, Family Resource Coordinator for ACE, said she tries to have a diversity of people share their stories.

“I hope that somebody sitting in there can relate to one of the stories and realize that there’s many ways to be successful in life,” Hested said. “There’s lot of ways to be successful.”

Of the 11 who spoke, some went on to obtain two or four year degrees while some obtained a certificate.

Martin County West’s principal, Autumn Welcome, sees the benefit in students attending ACE.

“I think it’s really good to have early exposure to career options. It might spark some interest, especially for some kids who want to stay local and don’t know what the options are,” Welcome said.

She said she also thought it benefitted students with developing some soft skills by interacting with the business representatives.

The event not only benefits the students, but the business community, too, which is something that excites Menne.

“The main thing is to present the career opportunities to our students and give them the time to think thoughtfully about a career path and encourage them that if they do go away, to come back. Fairmont and the Martin County area is a good place to live, work, raise a family and the amenities are a lot,” Menne said.

She gave a shoutout to the funding partners.

“Without them we couldn’t do it,” Menne said.

They include Martin County EDA, FEDA, Kahler Automation, Bank Midwest, First Farmers and Merchant Bank, United Hospital District and grants from Perkins and the Martin County Youth Foundation.