Powhatan High School senior Logan Kennedy listened intently as Josh Hogston of Royall Pump & Well Company explained the workings of a huge drilling rig that he brought with him to PHS's recent Career Day.
Kennedy, 18, said he enjoyed seeing "all the hydraulics and switches to make it work and the horsepower to make the drills go down to the hole. Just learning everything about this machine and how he got started and what interested him about it."
A 2003 PHS grad, Hogston, 28, said there were career days when he was in school.
"Yeah, but it wasn't like it is now," he said. "[It] seems a lot more interesting now."
Hogston said he enjoyed experiencing the other side of Career Day as a presenter.
"I just like talking with the kids," he said.
The derrick on the rig that he operates and had on display stands 43 feet tall, Hogston said, adding that he enjoys being at the controls.
"With the tools on the rig we can go 500 feet," he said. "It's pretty cool to do. It's fun."
A certified welder, PHS 2012 grad Gareth Stewart also was among the 73 presenters representing a number of professions at the annual Career Day.
"It was pretty cool coming back and saying that I was in this welding class in my senior year of high school [and this] is where it all kind of started," Stewart said.
The money is good and he isn't afraid of some of the risks involved with the work, including welding on projects as high as 800 feet, Stewart said.
Lyndsey Watson, a 16-year-old junior, said she enjoyed Stewart's presentation and she plans on taking the welding class at PHS next year.
For her, welding is a challenge and she believes she's up to it, Watson said.
"I guess it's the risk of it," she said. "I just really, really like being able to do something that most guys don't think a girl can do."
She's familiar with "Rosie the Riveter," the moniker given to many American women who worked in factories and other jobs normally performed by the men who served in World War II.
"Absolutely," she said. "I tie my hair back in a bandana [and] that's what everybody tells me I look like."
Karen Hill, a registered nurse who works in Human Resources at Virginia Commonwealth University, is a veteran presenter at PHS's annual Career Day.
"I do no direct patient care, which is one of the things about nursing," Hill said. "It's varied. You can stay by the bedside or you can branch off and do other things so I decided to branch off and do other things."
Talking with students about nursing and other health care careers is enjoyable, Hill said.
"I like the opportunity just to get out there and talk about nursing, what a great profession it is because it is and just have people think about what they want to do, maybe give [them] some ideas about health care careers," she said.
Ronald Hagy, an 18-year-old senior, attended Hill's presentation and he said his goal is to become a cardiothoracic surgeon and a neurosurgeon.
"Well I just like how the body acts, how amazing it is, how we can process things through the brain and simply do what we do," he said.
Samantha Kinyoun, a 15-year-old sophomore, also attended Hill's presentation and said she enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about nursing and to ask questions.
"I want to be a psychiatrist or a registered nurse," Kinyoun said.
Career Day is open to sophomores through seniors and students sign up for three presentations, said Doug Reimondo, a school counselor at PHS who coordinated the event. About 1,000 students participated this year, he said.
"It gives the students an opportunity to pick a career or find out about a career that they might not have thought of," Reimondo said. "Our motto is, 'College and Career Ready,' so this is a part of that. The satisfaction of it is the feedback we get when they say, 'Hey, I really liked the neo-natal nurse,' or 'I really liked the lawyer.' Kids get a different perspective and you never know when a kid's going to walk into something [they may pursue]."
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