The Post-secondary Fair is an annual occurrence at Naugatuck High School as well as many other schools in America. The fair is a place where students who want to go to college can look into possible schools they may want to be a part of in the future.

Many schools that attend the fair include Paul Mitchell, Oxford Hair Academy, Roger Williams University and state schools such as Southern, Central, Sacred Heart and NVCC.

The Fair at Naugatuck High School is more of a post-secondary school fair because of the wide variety of schools that are presented to the students. Along with the representatives from colleges, army recruiters and other people from the workforce come to inform students about life outside of high school.

Co-organizer Mrs. Josephine Tacinelli told The GreyHound News, “The goal of the fair is to hopefully get students thinking about what they may want to do in the future, so that way when college application time comes around they will have some idea of what they want to do in the future, whether that is to go into the workforce, military or if it’s a trade or a traditional four year school. This is just to help them make a better decision and understand what they really want to do in life. The fair is opened up to sophomores, juniors as well as seniors who are all given a list of guiding questions that will help them gain information throughout the fair and hopefully this makes their college visits in the future easier. The fair, also, opens their mind to location of colleges as well as the costs of everyday living.”

Much work goes into the fair and the way it is run from the help of the schools that attend as well as the coordinators. Mrs. Tacinelli is a career counselor and coordinator for Naugatuck High School. She is responsible for a large percentage of the work that goes into the College Fair. Many students and school representatives  have shared their opinions on the College Fair, as well as the opportunities that come along with it, there is much work put into making the college fair as informational and professional as possible.

Mrs. Tacinelli has been organizing the fair for about a decade and has provided countless students with the opportunity to understand and weigh their decisions about college.

As Mrs. Tacinelli explains they have to start fairly early on in the year organizing this fair so there is an equal opportunity for schools and students to come represent what they are inspired by or may want,“We start around October and select a date, to send save the dates out when the colleges come in to visit in the fall. We also send a mass email to all the college [representatives] inviting them to attend our college fair, in the spring. We try and organize it around the Hartford Consortium because most of the college reps are in town, so hopefully we’ll get a good draw.  We always invite all the local schools because it gives students more options for transportation if they would like to live at home, so we try and reach out to all the connecticut state schools.”

But there’s a reason the counselors and coordinators put in so much work, and that’s because the College Fair helps the students so much. The information given to the sophomores and juniors from the representatives is something they can’t get through a website or pamphlet.  

Senior Sydney Lauer, who will be attending Roger Williams University, chose her college at this fair.

“[The fair] helped me in choosing the school I am going to, the representatives were really knowledgeable and provided me with answers none of the other booths really gave me. They encouraged me to reach out and visit the school, and once I did that I knew it was the right school for me,” Lauer said.

Junior Charlie Marenghi explained, “The college fair gave me the opportunity to look at schools I didn’t even know existed and find out more about them.”

The Post-Secondary Fair allows students to connect to their future and decide what they may want in their life. It shows them the possibilities they may not have considered and opens their mind to a new world after high school.