The Greene County School District is making strides to give students early opportunities to explore different career areas.

The middle school offers career classes for seventh and eighth grade students, where they get to experience different careers. Law enforcement is one of those areas and the Jefferson Police Department recently visited with students and discussed what they do for their jobs. Police Captain Heath Enns says they make about seven trips per school year to talk with students about law enforcement.

“There are a lot of educated questions that they ask and it kind of catches me off guard sometimes, (and) a lot of it involves our equipment. We do take some of it with us as well. We let them try on some of our body armor, we’ll let them test out the handcuffs, as well as our taser. I do explain how our taser works, when we use it.”

Principal Shawn Zanders sees opportunities like this will help middle school students get better prepared for high school and beyond.

“At this point some students maybe don’t see a clear path of a future that they have and the work that Miss (Kathy) Bravard, Mr. (Kyle) Kinne, and Miss (Jill) Wanninger are all doing is vital to get them thinking about that. And then in eighth grade they really start doing the planning where they start looking at their classes and doing the four-year plan, exploring what options are truly out there for them.”

The school district’s motto is “providing a foundation for lifelong learners.”