Photo by Scott McCloskey Dozens of Wheeling Park High School students participate in a “Beyond Education” breakfast event Thursday morning in the school’s food court.

Wheeling Park High School hosted a leadership program Thursday to enlighten emerging student leaders about the field of education as a future career option.

Dozens of Wheeling Park students were invited to attend the “Beyond Education” breakfast event in the school’s Patriot Food Court. Ohio County Schools officials and former Wheeling Park High School student, West Virginia University ambassador Lauren Marquart — who is majoring in elementary education at WVU — and representatives from West Liberty University and Bethany College spoke about the profession of education.

Rick Jones, assistant superintendent of Ohio County Schools, said with an emerging shortage of teachers, they are using the event to expose students to the field of education as a career option.

“We’re trying to show a group of kids what education is all about, with a specific focus on minority students,” he said. “We’re very under-represented with minority teachers in this area.

He said they were using the event to educate the students about “what it looks like to be a teacher” and all the different aspects about a teaching career.”

“Hopefully in the near future we could see some of these kids … here teaching,” Jones said. “So we could make a real impact very soon.”

Wheeling Park High School Principal Meredith Dailer said “Beyond Education ” is a program they developed several years ago to try and encourage their students, particularly minority students, to consider the profession of education “as their life path.” She said the program was initially developed by Jones and she helped facilitate the event at the high school.

“This is a year-long program. The (participating) students are identified by teachers, coaches, administrators and counselors for being natural leaders and kids who should maybe consider education as a profession,” Dailer commented.

Marquart said she planned to talk to the students about the various education major programs at WVU and “why they should go into education.”

“So far, I’ve loved every experience I’ve had at WVU. It’s been a wonderful university to be a part of and the people in our education programs are absolutely amazing,” Marquart said.