Naugatuck High School hosted its annual college fair for sophomores and juniors in the cafeteria on the morning of Tuesday, March 27 from 8:00 am to 11:00 am.

Sophomores and juniors were dismissed from class to attend the fair in alphabetical order over the course of the morning.  

Planning for the fair may begin as early as November and takes coordination between many different school staff members and departments. While the plans for the fair are originally developed by the College & Career Center, these plans require the help of the counseling department, school administrators, security guards, custodians, ROTC students, community training students, and Sodexo in order to execute them.

“We try to select schools that students have shown an interest in over the years,” said Naugatuck High School career specialist, Giuseppina Tacinelli.

The fair is the only of one its size to take place each year; students considering different post-secondary institutions or career paths outside of such events may visit the Counselling Department and the College and Career Center for more information.

All accredited four-year colleges and universities and some of the local community colleges in the state of Connecticut are invited to attend.  Though the list varies from year to year, 170 post-secondary institutions were invited and roughly ninety attended from throughout the state of Connecticut and the New England region.

“Since the fair is held at the school during school hours, many students are able to talk to various schools from the New England area or along the east coast without having to travel so far,”  said Naugatuck High School career specialist, Giuseppina Tacinelli.

Some of the post-secondary institutions in attendance include the University of Connecticut, Sacred Heart University, Central Connecticut State University, Stony Brook University, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Vermont.

“The college fair has offered our students an opportunity to the connect with a variety of post-secondary options,” said Tacinelli.

Career-oriented institutions such as the Fashion Institute of Technology, Paul Mitchell the School, the Culinary Institute of American, the Connecticut Fire Academy, the United States Air Force, and the United States Army were present as well, allowing students explore to not only their academic interests but also to consider their future professional goals.  

The Career Center has held a college and career fair for ten years, first beginning with a small group of both local post-secondary institutions and businesses; thereafter expanding each year to invite and host more and  more colleges from throughout the region.

“It gave me useful information about colleges I didn’t even think about looking into before hand,” said Dylan Gloden, a junior at Naugatuck High School looking to major in mathematics and education.