News
SMC Hosts Inaugural MiCareerQuest Cass County
Published on May 15, 2025 - 12 p.m.
On May 13 Heritage Southwest Intermediate School District’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Department in conjunction with Michigan Works! and Southwestern Michigan College held the inaugural MiCareerQuest Cass County.
This event exposed 900 Cass and Van Buren Counties ninth graders from 13 schools to the world of work. This event is “not just a career fair,” but “an interactive career exploration event.”
CareerQuest covered the Dowagiac campus, with Touch a Truck filling half of the parking lot off Cherry Grove Road and hands-on exhibits spilling across Mathews Conference Centers East and West, the auto lab in the Kairis Building for professional trades and the Barbara Wood Building, subdivided into booths featuring business, hospitality and information technology professionals.
MCC West housed engineering and manufacturing. Larger MCC East, partitioned into two, contained health and agriculture sciences.
Tucked away in the Wood Building next to the popular Midwest Energy and Communications (MEC) Esports Arena was The WRM, a tiny radio station “coming to you live ... and sometimes recorded from downtown Marcellus.”
Slated for the morning rotation through six colored-coded areas were Edwardsburg, Bangor, Gobles, Hartford, Marcellus, Volinia Outcomes School and the ISD’s North Pointe Center.
Attending the afternoon session were Dowagiac, Pathfinders Alternative and Adult Education, Cassopolis, Lawrence, Decatur and Covert.
Jason Smith, supervisor of CTE Academies and Early Middle College for the Heritage Southwest ISD near Cassopolis, said the Cass event is patterned after Kalamazoo’s MiCareerQuest Southwest, which was established more than 10 years ago to serve eighth graders. It takes place Oct. 28-29.
Smith said local districts can prepare through Xello, an online K-12 college and career readiness software that unlocks students’ potential by opening their eyes to future possibilities.
Smith’s mind is already making mental notes for next near.
“We are hoping to grow employer participation and to add more heavy machinery and equipment. Our focus is on creating the most opportunities and exposure for our students,” Smith said.
