Cedartown Middle School held its second annual Career Fair on May 8, 2012.

The event was hosted by Career Teacher Jennae Elder and the Business and Tammy Astin, computer science teacher. A number of speakers from the community and abroad came to talk to students about their careers and the importance of a high school education. The speakers also talked about on-the-job requirements, training and the skills needed for their occupations.

During homeroom, students viewed several video clips about various careers.

The students picked ten careers that they were interested in and identified which of the 11 Georgia Career Clusters that was associated with each of their occupational choices. They also gave a brief description of each career. These video clips helped students see the working conditions and specifications of several different kinds of careers.

Cedartown Middle School said they wished to thank the speakers including: Tamaka Hudson and Mandy Mallicoat, Polk County Chamber of Commerce; Robert Smyth,Coosa Valley Credit Union; Mandy Richardson, speech teacher at CMS; Tonya White, parole officer; April Welch, Georgia North Western Technical College; Jamie Newsome, Cedartown Police Department;

Christy Myer and Kim Jacobs, Home Depot; Sammy Stephens , Cedartown Fire Department; Kontessa Blackwell, Cosmetology; Yvonee Waddle, cake decorator; Marty Robinson, Redmond EMT; Ricky

Dempsey, game warden; Joe Dyer, military; Marla Frasier, CMS school nurseand Tim Turner and Efronzer Jones, Georgia Power.

In addition to Career Day, CMS also had special guest Shawn Powell speak to the 8th grade students.

Powell is a native from Rome, and was a punter for Florida State University. He was FSU's first consensus All-American punter and the school's all-time leader in multiple punting categories as a three-year starter. Powell was a Football Bowl Subdivision national leader with a 47-yard average as a senior and a fifth all-time in the Atlantic Coast Conference in career punting average (44.2 yards per punt).

He is now a professional football player and has recently signed as a free agent with the Buffalo Bills.

Powell spoke to the students about staying in school, keeping a positive attitude and striving to reach their personal goals.

Any businesses or individuals interested in taking part in next year's career day can contact Jennae Elder at jelder@polk.k12.ga.us or Tammy Astin tastin@polk.k12.ga.us.