NANTICOKE – On April 9, 2026, the Greater Nanticoke Area hosted a Career Fair in the gymnasium. Throughout the day, students from grades 9-12 were able to speak to volunteers from many various careers & trades.
Some (but not all) of the volunteers were Pennsylvania State Police, LCCC Culinary Institute, Wilkes Pharmacy, PSEA, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Nanticoke Fire Department, Wilkes University, and Misericordia University.
A few of the volunteers took a moment to talk to The GNA Insider to give students who want to pursue their career a piece of advice.
Trooper Nicholas Lakkis – Pennsylvania State Police
“What is one piece of advice you would give to students who want to pursue a career with the Pennsylvania State Police?”
“So, students at a high school age, there’s two things that are detrimental. Stay out of trouble. When you go through our hiring process, you will go through a polygraph test, which is a lie detector test and a background investigation. We want to know everything about you from the time you were a little kid to the present day. So, the reason for that being is, obviously, this job comes with a lot of responsibility. We pride ourselves on integrity, which, you know, it’s doing the right thing when nobody else is looking. So, obviously, you need a trustworthy and honest person. The other thing is staying in shape. Our training is very physical to our hiring process to get into the state police. And then if you do make it and you’re a trooper, your day-to-day at work involves around physical fitness and it may save more than just your life or somebody else’s life someday.”
Kim McLendon – LCCC Culinary Arts
“What is one piece of advice you would give to students who want to pursue a career in Culinary?”
“I would say practice. I would tell the students to really learn the basic fundamentals of cooking and practicing. It’s all about repetition. The more you practice, the better you’re gonna become at that particular job.”
Kayla Troast – PSEA
“What is one piece of advice you would give to students who want to pursue a career in Culinary?”
“One piece of advice I would give students is to really explore the topics that they love and that they think might be the avenue they want to teach and have their major as. Then, the minute they get to college, get out into a classroom and start student teaching or going to do tutoring, or shadowing, so you start getting the experience from the other end. There’s a lot that your teachers do that you don’t know is happening in the background.”
