Bowie Middle School has made it their goal to expose students to as many people and experiences as possible.
On Wednesday, Bowie hosted their second annual Career Day. Several people in and around the community came to the school to share their educational or trade journey to their chosen career. All 324 eighth graders spent their morning cycling through the 22 presenters.
“We got to explore different colleges and careers and the props they brought to really experience the possibilities open to us,” says Bowie 8th grader Justin Nguyen.
Career Day gives students a glimpse of the possibilities available when they graduate from high school.
Students had the opportunity to visit with every presenter, many of whom are actually Bowie and Irving ISD alumni.
“I heard about the career fair taking place at Bowie, and I immediately said, ‘sign me up.’ I was in their place on the other side of the table so I’m excited to share my experiences and the path that led me to college,” says Sonia Lopez, a Bowie and Nimitz alum who represented the engineering school at the University of Texas at Arlington. 
Presenters ranged from Nimitz JROTC students to social workers, attorneys and an owner of iFratelli’s Pizza. Career Day gave many of them a chance to visit their former school and meet kids with ample interest in their trade.
“Nimitz JROTC is catching my eye. I’m hoping to join when I enter Nimitz, next year,” says 8th grader, Alex Pena.
Alex recently joined the Bowie community after being home-schooled. Alex’s experience has made a meaningful impact.
“Ms. Stewart is amazing. She organized this whole event to help the students and myself. It is very encouraging for us eighth-graders to meet the presenters and learn about their jobs and even their experience here in Irving ISD. It helps us get a head start to college and everything that comes after that,” says Alex.
Principal Natasha Stewart decided to host this Career Day because she felt that the exposure and role models her students can receive from this experience are invaluable.
“As a kid, my exposure was limited,” says Principal Stewart. “It’s about planting the seed as early as possible. It’s important for me to do this for my students because they need to have role models. The earlier the better. They may not take on these careers and schools immediately, but they will remember the experience. You don’t know what you don’t know.”
