Oakdale Elementary Connects Kids With Real-World Careers

Oakdale Elementary School hosted their career day Wednesday and the event brought out plenty of industry professionals from the Tuscaloosa community.

Volunteers from traditional and non-traditional career fields showed up ready to educate Oakdale students on their careers in a fun, engaging way. Props and all kinds of equipment made an appearance in the form of fire trucks, food, expensive cars, DJ equipment and more.

"I decided to bring the Charm Academy to  Oakdale's Career Day, which is a cosmetology and entrepreneurial center," said School Board Member and Charm Academy Founder Erica Grant.

"Doing hair is something that I started when I was 9 years old and at 43, it's still apart of my life. There are 9 year old students here today ad they need t know that you can start at this age." said Grant.

"We also want to teach the students the business side of the industry and how you can be financially successful, the relationships and also the mental piece to it. It's more than people may think."

We saw that our students were very engaged, they were excited to learn about the different careers, we had police officers, a dentist, a veterinarian and different things that the kids were very excited to learn about, said Robin Hendricks, School Librarian at Oakdale Elementary.

"It's important that we show them that there's more to life than what they see everyday and there are many different careers for them to choose from."