Typically, representatives from colleges and the military are the ones who come to speak to students about the opportunities their colleges have or positions available in the military. This year, counselor Louise Ronnau has been trying to provide more people for the students to talk with: someone who has been or is in certain fields of the workforce around south central Kansas.

“Most students want to stay around the local area, and the oil and gas industry is big in this part of Kansas,” Mrs. Ronnau said.

Last Wednesday, pipeline worker Paul Bartelson was invited to the school to talk to the students about opportunities in the oil and gas industry. Mr. Bartelson is a third generation oilman and is the husband of school librarian Callie Bartelson.

The oil and gas industry has not been exactly booming in Kansas as of late according to Mr. Bartelson, but he did give a few options that the students could do if they wanted to get hired by a company outside of Kansas.

“There were a lot more fields than I thought,” senior Alex Tarrant said.

Mrs. Ronnau is planning on bringing in more people with in-depth experience of the opportunities in the broader and often overlooked work fields. Dawn Cornejo will be scheduled in the coming weeks to talk about careers in emergency medicine, and Diane Burris will be coming Jan. 12 to talk about careers in construction to those who are interested.