On Sept. 29, students from across Genesee, Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming counties gathered at the Genesee County Fairgrounds in Batavia for GLOW With Your Hands. The annual career-exploration event gave them time to do more than read job titles: they could try activities, watch demonstrations and talk with people connected to different kinds of work. Orleans Hub reported that about 1,200 students attended. The Batavian reported students from 32 school districts and more than 70 employers, industry partners, colleges and workforce organizations. Geneseo Central School said 34 of its ninth- and tenth-graders attended and connected with more than 100 industry professionals.
For Batavia sophomores Trenton Darling and Ayden De La Torre, one stop involved drywall. At a United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners station, they learned to drive screws into a sheet of drywall. Darling told The Batavian he liked the chance to be hands-on and try the task himself. The activity connected a tool to a practical skill in a way a description on a brochure could not.
Darling was considering conservation or carpentry through BOCES the following year and said there were things he wanted to explore there. De La Torre, meanwhile, said carpentry was not his own intended path; he planned to study law. He still saw value in trying the station and learning how the tools worked. The same table could serve students differently: one might picture a future course, while another simply got a clearer sense of a job he would not choose.
Other stations put different kinds of work in reach. Orleans Hub reported Lyndonville sophomore Anthony Hernandez Landaverde operating an excavator and Kendall student Tanner Holliman learning lineman skills with Kevin Czuba of National Grid. Perry student Kayleigh Hepper tried an auto-feed screw gun at a drywall station. The Batavian also described a drone demonstration from WNY Aerial AG. Each example offered a glimpse of work that can be difficult to imagine from a classroom description alone.
The event also let students meet peers already learning technical skills. Orleans and Niagara BOCES students showed classmates work from an advanced manufacturing and engineering program that includes computer numerical machining, computer-aided design and welding. Albion senior Jackson Snook said the program gave him a chance to make different machine parts and meet students from nearby districts. Mason Snook, also an Albion senior, described the program as a mix of class time and extended building work. Their presentations showed visitors what a technical program can look like after the first day of exploration.
At another table, students learned how copper pipe is joined. Monroe Community College instructor Darwin Snell demonstrated soldering with Pembroke students Ayden Waggoner and Nick Skeet, who also tried the task. The Batavian reported that Waggoner was considering electrical engineering or an auto- or diesel-mechanic program, while Skeet was interested in aerospace engineering. A single hands-on demonstration could connect with more than one plan, and neither student had to settle on a final answer at the fairgrounds.
Some students were drawn to possibilities beyond construction or machinery. The Batavian described Pavilion students exploring maple syrup and air-conditioning demonstrations; the report also noted interests in technology and software engineering, veterinary study, and working with animals or children. Their interests reflected the range of tables around the fairgrounds, where agriculture, manufacturing, trades, transportation, engineering, public service and other fields were represented.
GLOW With Your Hands has been held annually since 2019, and Orleans Hub reported that more than 6,000 students have attended over the years. This year’s school account placed one small piece of that reach in view: 34 Geneseo students, all in grades 9 and 10, spent the day exploring and asking questions. The larger event brought schools and local employers into the same space, with students able to move between demonstrations rather than settle on one path.
Career exploration cannot tell a student exactly what to do next, and the reports do not say that every visitor left with a decision. What they document is a day designed around trying, asking and comparing: a drywall tool, an excavator cab, copper pipe, a drone, a piece of computer-controlled equipment. For a young person still sorting through possibilities, a first-hand look can make the next question more specific. Sometimes a useful next step is simply learning what you want to explore further, or what you do not.
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