Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP Jacob Felton, a former Nashua teacher now an associate professor at Nashua Community College, talks with three NHS students about careers in the automotive field during Wednesday's career fair at Nashua High School North. (Telegraph photo by DEAN SHALHOUP)

NASHUA – A pair of table-top size models named “Mr. Skin” and “Mr. Bones” were among the displays that greeted groups of Nashua High School Career & Technical Education students currently, or soon to be, in the process of deciding on a career path.

Organized by the Nashua Technology Center, the event, called “CTE on Wheels,” gave students the chance to learn more about the various career opportunities on which they may decide to embark following high school graduation.

“A couple of years ago we had a DPW Day, and this kind of stems from that,” said NTC Career Center coordinator Marisa Dardagiannopoulos, referring to the visit by the city Department of Public Works.

Jeff Beard, a career development specialist with the state Department of Education who manned the DOE tables with Christy Adamson.

“There’s been a lot of curiosity,” Beard said of the information he and Adamson had for the students. “We had about 50 kids (talk to us) from the first class.”

On the other side of the CTE RV – a camper-like vehicle transformed into a mobile resource center – Jason Felton, an associate professor and automotive technology program coordinator at Nashua Community College, held the attention of three Nashua High School North seniors by alternately asking questions and answering theirs.

Across the parking lot from Felton’s setup, New Hampshire Automobile Dealers Association representatives Kate Amrol and Nelida Arellano handed out several different kinds of promotional freebies while chatting with prospective future auto technicians.

Large vehicles, especially ones whose wheels stand nearly as high as the average high schooler, proved a natural attraction for a majority of students.

DPW employees, joined by Lauren Byers, the department’s public relations administrator, urged the young men and women who stopped to visit to consider a career in a field that is dedicated to keeping their city or town’s infrastructure up and running and in good repair.

The next stop for most students also featured huge vehicles – U.S. Army recruiters brought along a couple of examples of the heavy equipment that soldiers are trained to operate – one of which was an authentic Army Humvee.

Some students took the recruiters up on their invitation to climb the several steps that brings them into the Humvee’s cockpit-like seating.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.