Goodfellow, Local Community Volunteer at first Careers Y’all

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Abbey Rieves
  • 17th Training Wing Public Affairs
Goodfellow Air Force Base members and over 65 additional local industries volunteered to showcase their career field and mentor youth at the first Careers Y’all, a youth career fair, hosted by Concho Valley Workforce Development at the McNease Convention Center, San Angelo, Texas, March 6, 2019.

In addition to the local community, Goodfellow members and retired veterans engaged with students from the Concho Valley and over 13 surrounding communities. The students were grades 8, 11 and 12.

“This is our first event and we will continue it annually,” said Concho Valley Workforce Development Board Director of Education and Training, Amber McNew. “We are really excited that Goodfellow has partnered with us on this event and appreciate it. I want the students to understand that there are multiple occupations in the military, not just infantry.”

Participating Air Force members allowed the students to test their interests with a variety of military equipment for low light observation such as night vision goggles and a forward looking infrared camera.

“There’s so many hands-on demonstrations,” said McNew. “Students can actually try things out. It’s important for them to engage with hands-on experiences.”

In addition to Goodfellow members’ participation, other base and community affiliates such as Starbase Goodfellow and Civil Air Patrol, volunteered to showcase a variety of science experiments and let the students test aircraft flying simulators.

Although the event offered its own benefits for the students, military members benefited through volunteerism as well.

“I really like connecting with the kids,” said Staff Sgt. Mandelin Hoover, 315th Training Squadron instructor. “It’s important to give back to the community, to become one with the community. I really like that San Angelo and Goodfellow are so interconnected.”