Katal at 2024 Middlesex High School Career Fair Expo
Talking with young people about farming
Last month, on Thursday, 4/25, Katal staff and members participated in the 2024 Career Fair Expo for High School Students, held in Middletown. The Career Fair is hosted annually by the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, Middlesex Consortium of Schools, Middlesex County School Partners, and Wesleyan University’s Jewett Center for Community Partnerships. Katal’s Cultivating Justice project and our partner Chicks Ahoy Farm joined over 170 business and career professionals from Middlesex County and beyond to provide close to 1200 students from at least 11 area high schools with an invaluable opportunity to explore potential careers so that they may better plan their educational goals.
(the 2024 Career Fair Expo was hosted by the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce)
This was 2nd year at this event for Cultivating Justice – last year, Matt Mitchell, Owner at Lovie’s Farm, staffed the table for the project. This year, Katal co-founder Lorenzo Jones and Chris (youth member at Cultivating Justice project) staffed the table, meeting local high school students from Middlesex County. We introduced some students to farming and chicken keeping, and met other students experienced in farming, and talked with young people about a career in agriculture based in Connecticut.
We spoke with dozens of young people, including Vocational Agriculture students specifically who want to work with BILPOC farming in Middletown. We were able to connect them to our Miller Street Community Farm project, and additionally expand some local opportunities for folks in the Middletown area by adding the 13 acres at Lovie’s Farm at Randolph Road to the available space to farm for students and families in Middlesex County.
We asked the students who visited our table to suggest names for the two chickens we had with us. Those two chickens were hatched by Chicks Ahoy Farm FLOC members this year as part of Cultivating Justice and Chicks ahoy Farm’s Avian Embryology project.
It was a constructive day full of new connections and good conversations. With more and more young people getting involved in farming and community organizing work, we are excited to see what developments grow over the summer.
To get involved with our Cultivating Justice project, and to learn more, please contact project manager Diana Martinez at diana@katalcenter.org
