High Order Is Friends With Friends Of Noise
We had a blast at the "Find Your Future Fest" job fair put on by Friends of Noise.
July 11, 2024
Friends of Noise is a Portland-based non-profit organization providing youth-focused programs primarily around music events and access to music as a profession. They provide safe, productive spaces for performing and listening to music with the credo, “All ages. Always.” Their goal to create a community through art and the empowerment of skills training is very dear to us so when the call came for presenters for the first ever Find Your Future Fest we said an enthusiastic, “Yes!”
On Saturday June 15th at Portland’s Parkrose Middle School, the event was a career fair from 11:00am to 4:00pm followed by a live concert that evening. Students ranging in age from middle schoolers to recent high school graduates enjoyed a day meeting with over 20 exhibitors representing careers in design, human services, construction, healthcare, photography, architecture, and more.
At the top of each hour small breakout groups of attendees chose a presenter and sat down with representatives to talk about career insights. We were thrilled to see so many kids choose us at table #12 where we had set up a colorful display with work samples and a portfolio of client projects. Students were excited to hear about how dynamic our work is ranging from murals, signs, retail store build outs and physical environments to screen printing and exhibit design. Pretty much every attendee found something we did that made them feel like this could be a cool career for them. One 8th-grader stood out for us, they told us they were constantly asking their sister if they could repaint her room; they loved to paint and add artistic elements. Keep doing that!
That’s the best advice we had; keep doing the things you like to do and constantly try new things to learn new skills. There will always be work for craftsmanship and artists in the commercial world and the best part is the work is fun and satisfying to do. We met a lot of bright students and even found ourselves a dynamic, motivated summer intern for the shop. Can’t wait to go back next year. Check out Friends of Noise to follow what they do and learn more.