Cranston Students Participate In Construction Career Day

From high above, in a cherry picker used to trim trees, local students had the opportunity to survey the vast amount of construction equipment on hand at the Department of Transportation's Career Day on Wednesday.

The giant excavators, cranes, pavers, plows and pumpers looked like toys from 150 feet in the air.

Seniors Evan Yazidjian, Frank Catanzaro, Alex Odsen and Bill Comprone from Cranston's career and technical center were on hand to explore local career opportunities in the construction and transportation fields, along with 500 other students from throughout the state.  They walked from station to station learning about and gaining hands-on experience in fields like welding, excavating, carpentry, electrical work, truck-driving, bricklaying and auto mechanics.

The DOT career day began in 2000 when Jeff Cathcart, of URI's Transportation Center, was asked to put something together to let students know what careers exist in the local transportation and construction industry.  That first year 400 students came to the event, said Cathcart.  This year 1,200 students will attend over two days.  He said students may not know what they're interested in until they give it a try.

"We've had kids get on machines that are just naturals," said Cathcart, who noted that there was no other event in the state of this kind and size.

The Cranston students all said they were interested in pursuing work in the construction or transportation fields.  They said it was exciting to get a chance to look at all the different career paths.

"It was a new experience," said Comprone, "Welding was kind of interesting and so was working with sheetmetal."

Students from Cranston's ARC/Cornerstone School will be attending the event on Thursday.