Nov 14, 2016 2 min read

Guidance counselors from all five of Greene County’s high schools will host their third annual college fair Thursday at the Carmichaels-Cumberland Township Volunteer Fire Department near Carmichaels.

Hundreds of students from across the county will be able to talk with college representatives from 72 schools during the Greene County Consortium of School Counselors College Fair from 8:30 to 11:45 a.m. at the fire hall located at 420 W. George St.

“It’s definitely improved the amount of students that go on to secondary education,” said organizer Thomas Fink, who is a guidance counselor at Mapletown High School. “It’s a chance for them to get to know some of these colleges and trade schools.”

Fink said the counselors across the county decided to work together to bring a larger number of colleges and technical or trade schools to the area for high schoolers who are contemplating their futures. He said the districts then share the cost of the event, with the fire department donating the space and Penn State University donating breakfast.

He said about 70 percent of the vendors will be colleges and the other 30 percent will be technical and trade schools and armed forces. He said more than half of the vendors are institutions within Pennsylvania.

“We’ve gotten a few more vendors each year,” Fink said. “We guidance counselors really work well together in this county.”

He said the high school students will be bused in at staggered times, and each high school will get about an hour to spend at the fair.

“We survey the people who attend to try to make it more worthwhile for the students,” he said. “We can only get 80 vendors in that space.”

Becky Karluk, a guidance counselor for Waynesburg Central High School, said the college fair is a good opportunity even for students who are unsure if they want to go to college. She said she’s also encouraging juniors to attend because annual Free Application for Federal Student Aid applications are now due in October instead of January.

“The biggest advantage is they have the opportunity to speak with admissions representatives from colleges that typically wouldn’t visit the individual schools otherwise,” she said. “I think our students end up discovering that there are a lot more programs and majors available than they realize. It opens up their eyes as far as the possibilities.”