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

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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.