BRIDGEPORT — Kindergarten students at Bridgeport Elementary learned a lot about professionals within their school during special Career Week activities.

Teacher Maclaine Murad led activities on Oct. 6-9 but altered the format to primarily include in-school positions as a result of COVID-19. Children were treated to presentations from School Resource Officer Harley Johnston, cook Marsha Zupko and Principal Kamaron Sabinski, who discussed their roles in the building.

“The purpose of career week was to teach the students why we go to school to learn,” Murad said. “We go to learn the skills we need to get a job for the future. It is a great time to teach them this because they do not understand why we have to attend school.”

The students, who are 5 and 6 years old, got a glimpse of those who help make the school system run on a daily basis and contribute to their learning experience.

“We were unable to have volunteers from outside the district come in to talk due to COVID, so we improvised. We had our school resource officer, a cook from our cafeteria and the elementary principal speak. The students were very good listeners and practiced their questioning strategies to learn about the careers.”

She added that many students showed interest in becoming police officers while others indicated they wanted to be principals. While this was her first career week event, Murad hopes to see it continue well into the future.

“It will be a tradition because it is teaching our students vital skills,” she said. “I would like to have family volunteers once COVID has lifted so that we can learn about many other careers.”