Correspondent photo / Sean Barron Trooper Lindsay McGill of the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Canfield Post challenges Jonuel Olivier Ortiz, a Campbell Memorial High School junior, to walk a straight line while wearing a specialized pair of goggles during a simulation that was part of Thursday’s Career and College Expo at the school.

CAMPBELL — A key part of accounting deals with analyzing, verifying and reporting the results of financial and business transactions, though no math was needed to figure out what was behind Amy Graziano’s desire to give back to her alma mater.

“I want to just make them aware of what public accounting is,” Graziano, senior accountant with Packer Thomas Public Accounting’s Canfield office, said.

Graziano, a 2014 Campbell Memorial High School graduate, was happy to share her knowledge and resources related to the profession with the juniors and seniors who attended Thursday morning’s Career and College Expo in the school gym.

Also hosting the three-hour gathering was the Northeast Ohio IMPACT Academy.

Among the facts Graziano hoped the students would glean about the accounting world included knowing that the field “is continually evolving,” and for them to view it through a wider lens, meaning that it’s not merely employees who sit at a computer all day. For most, the field offers good pay, stability and growth opportunities, she said.

Perhaps more importantly, accounting also is largely about networking and interacting with others, with an emphasis on teamwork and bettering the community, Graziano added.

“I wish they had this when I was in high school,” she said, referring to Thursday’s expo.

Among those who she helped was Danny Dirando, a Campbell Memorial High junior, who listed math as his favorite subject, but added he’s “open to any suggestions” regarding possible careers after high school.

More than 25 local and regional vendors representing business and industry, along with post-secondary education and the military, set up shop at the expo, Principal Brad Yeager said.

The event also highlighted the importance of the three “E’s”: education, employment and enlistment, while acting as a “two-way street” between the school and the regional business and industry communities.

Also of high priority was exposing the students to opportunities in those sectors as well as the trades industry and the Armed Forces, Yeager explained.

To that end, the diverse set of entities represented at the expo included the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Akron Children’s Hospital, Lencyk Masonry, Vallourec, Bricklayers & Tile Setters Northeast Ohio union, Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, Cornerstone Mental Health Nurse Practitioners, Blended Cutz Barbering and Olsavsky Jaminet Architects Inc. Schools and colleges included Choffin Career and Technical Center, the Mahoning County Career & Technical Center, Kent State University, Stark State College in North Canton, the University of Akron, Penn State University, New Castle School of Trades and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s School of Nursing.

Among those who explored a variety of career options and possibilities were Campbell Memorial High seniors Vincent Grachanin, Kevin Timlin, Daveyon Cash and Caiden Smith.

“I’ve always been into circuits and stuff,” Grachanin said, adding he’s leaning toward attending Youngstown State University to study electrical or mechanical engineering.

YSU also is on Cash’s radar, as he hopes to enter the nursing field to become an at-home nurse and work in the home health care industry, a move that would allow him to follow in his mother and oldest sister’s footsteps. He also is open to other ideas if nursing fails to work out, Cash said.

Pre-med, with civil or electrical engineering or something in the trades industry as backup plans, interests Smith, who also is considering YSU. Becoming a general family doctor is his long-term goal, Smith added.

Attending a trade school is on Timlin’s horizon, though he has yet to nail down a specific plan, Timlin said, adding that he’s also interested in learning more about nursing and the construction industry.

Merely walking a straight line while maintaining his balance was a challenge for Campbell Memorial High junior Jonuel Olivier Ortiz after trooper Lindsay McGill of the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Canfield Post gave him a black pair of specialized goggles to wear.

Olivier Ortiz was among the students McGill fitted with the goggles as part of a simulation she conducted that allowed them to experience a level of driving impairment akin to having a 0.2 blood alcohol content, which is more than double Ohio’s 0.08 BAC legal limit.

Thursday’s expo was invaluable also because it provided business and industry personnel a chance to see that the students will have what it takes to become good quality employees, Yeager said.