Hundreds of Buena Vista County students explore careers at hands-on event

More than 750 students from Buena Vista County and three neighboring counties spent Thursday in Spencer testing real-world careers, not just hearing about them. The inaugural Build My Future event in the Iowa Lakes Corridor region filled the Clay County Regional Events Center at the Clay County Fair and Events Center with more than 50 employers and exhibitors offering hands-on looks at the jobs northwest Iowa needs filled.

Students from Alta-Aurelia, Newell-Fonda, Sioux Central, Storm Lake and Storm Lake St. Mary’s were among those who moved through more than 60 indoor and outdoor exhibits. The stations covered welding, construction, healthcare, law enforcement, manufacturing and diesel technology, along with agriculture, automotive and mechanic work, electrical, emergency services, HVAC, military and national guard, plumbing and utilities. Midwestern Mechanical and K&W Electric were among the local partners tied to the event, which was hosted by the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation with Northwest Iowa STEM.

Each student attended either a morning or afternoon session, and the Corridor required a safety orientation before anyone entered the exhibit floor. Students were also given a Build My Future T-shirt, drawstring bag and protective gear that included safety glasses, ear protection and gloves, a small but telling detail that organizers wanted the day to feel like a working jobsite, not a classroom lecture. The Corridor said more than 800 students were expected before the event; final attendance topped 750 from 15 schools.

Trevor Smith said the idea came from similar Build My Future events that started in Springfield, Missouri, in 2017, then was adapted to bring the experience closer to home for northwest Iowa students. He said the event was aimed especially at students who may not head to a four-year university, a group that makes up a significant share of graduating seniors in the region.

The career fair also fit into a broader recruitment push already underway in Buena Vista County. In early April, the Corridor said its 2025 business-retention work included 117 business visits across its four-county area, including 35 in Buena Vista County. Against that backdrop, Thursday’s event looked less like a one-day field trip than a direct pipeline between local employers and the next round of workers who may one day keep those shops, clinics and job sites staffed.