What do you want to do when you grow up?

When Kiana Anderson first began weighing career options, she was torn.

It was her freshman year at Waiakea High School, and like other first-year students, she was mulling which academy to join. Waiakea students join one of five career interest-area academies their freshman year.

“I had no idea,” the 17-year-old Anderson recalls. “I really liked science, but I also liked reading.”

Anderson is now a senior and president of Waiakea’s National Honor Society. On Friday, she and more than two dozen fellow Honor Society members spearheaded a first-time career fair designed to help incoming freshmen more easily make that career academy decision, come next year.

More than 285 Waiakea Intermediate School eighth-graders attended the student-run Cultivating Careers event and got a taste of about 20 different career options in law enforcement, photography, medicine and engineering, to name a few.

“We wanted to do something that would showcase our gratitude for people and community members and educators who allowed us to have a better education,” Anderson said.

“And we came up with a career fair because we noticed that was lacking in our school for the transition from eighth to ninth grade. We wanted to help them have a better transition and open their minds to the different opportunities our school offers.”

Among those in attendance was Leah Hara, 14, who said she’s set on a career as a pediatrician because she wants to work with children. She said she still found the career fair informative.

“It’s showing me a larger variety of jobs that I didn’t know much about,” Leah said. “(For example) teaching seems pretty cool, because it also (entails) working with kids. It’s made me realize there are more jobs I might be interested in.”

Waiakea’s Honor Society members said they hope to see the career fair become an annual event.