One group of students visiting Urban Design Associates redesigned the entire town of Braddock using scale models and maps, for example, while another, visiting Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato's office, drew up a balanced budget for the County.

Both exercises typified the experience TFIM strives to provide through the employer site visits that begin the conference each year.

"There's no substitute for hands-on learning," said Steve Seliy, Associate Executive Director for The Consortium. "It helps students connect what they're doing in school with what they might want to do in the real world. Our goal is always to give our TFIM teams a close look at the work people do in different occupations. The employers who helped us this year did a fantastic job."

More than 300 students and their faculty advisors attended the two-day conference, held April 23-24. In addition to site visits with 16 employers around the region, the event included a tour of the Senator John Heinz History Center; speakers, including Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch; and more than a half dozen career-related workshops.

The conference coincided with Imagine Career Week, an annual event that the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and The Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board coordinate to highlight local employment opportunities for the region's youth.

"Talking with professionals in my area of interest was really beneficial," said Michael, a Steel Valley High School sophomore who visited GAI Consulting's Waterfront headquarters in Homestead. "They gave me a detailed briefing about the kinds of work they do where they need people with backgrounds in agricultural science" including soil testing and landscape engineering."

Batch, who spoke at the conference luncheon, told students a tragedy in his own life-the slaying of a younger sister who was caught in the crossfire of gang violence when he was in college-could have short-circuited his ambitions but instead made him work harder to heal his family's pain and to help his community. A Homestead native, Batch founded a traveling basketball league for kids in communities surrounding his old neighborhood.

Five TFIM graduates, shown above, also spoke at the luncheon. One told participants that TFIM helped him improve his communications skills. Through the conference and other opportunities TFIM creates for networking with students and employers, he said, "you're getting outside your comfort zone and that's important, because that's what going to college is all about."

Conference breakout sessions ranged from a workshop that Monster.com presented on job searches to seminars about entrepreneurship and ways gender biases can inhibit career choices. Ayana Ledford, a noted gender researcher from Carnegie Mellon University, also led girls in discussions and activities that illustrated how to use negotiating skills.

A dinner, dance and overnight stay at the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center also gave students a chance to interact with peers from other districts. Students studying digital filmmaking, special effects and cosmetology at Monessen's Douglas Education Center also entertained conference attendees with demonstrations of the crafts that help Hollywood simulate blood, gore and glamour.