CHATHAM — Middle school students from across six school districts descended on the Olde Dominion Agriculture Complex in Chatham on Wednesday for the 12th annual Career ChoICE Youth Expo.

The two-day event — high school students were scheduled on Thursday — brought more than 3,000 young learners to see a wide array of employment opportunities across Southside Virginia.

The unusual capitalization of ICE in choice stands for imagine, connect and explore, the overall goal of the expo.

“For the middle school students, the idea is this is really about exposure, to just what’s available here in the region,” Jessie Vernon, director of employer engagement and experiential learning at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research, told the Register & Bee on Wednesday.

Vernon has been organizi

See Full Page