CATLETTSBURG, Ky. — What is on the job horizon for middle school students today?

Twelve eighth graders from St. Joseph Catholic and half the eighth grade class from Wayne (W.Va.) Middle School learned about career options Tuesday when they attended a session of the Marathon Petroleum Corporation Career Fair at the England Hill Training Facility in Catlettsburg, Ky.

The fair was a part of Marathon’s Diversity Team initiative.

The fair divided into 18 stations, each giving a synopsis of the students may need for the job and a synopsis of their job responsibilities at the refinery.

Students split into small teams had approximately 5 to 7 minutes at the next station before a buzzer sounded, signaling the change to each station.

One station included safety gear for the plant. The staff at the booth explained how damage would be inflicted if they didn’t wear the equipment. They likened not wearing earplugs to blasting an iPod on maximum volume for days on end.

Other stations included fire and rescue, which had firefighter gear for the students to try on and one fire engine in the back lot for the students to climb in, and accounting, which had a simulated lemonade stand and a competition among the students to see which group collected the most money.

Nicci Triche, diversity team member, said the company met with seniors at Paul Blazer High School in Ashland, Ky. Sept. 12 to see which stand they remembered five years after the inaugural fair. The students said the lemonade stand.

The aim of the fair was to get the students thinking about job possibilities.

“We want (the students) to think about what they want to do when they grow up,” Triche said. “Also, we’d like to keep them in this area.”

Clyde Plank, earth science and life science teacher at St. Joseph, hoped the students learned that science is important for the workplace.

Greg Jackson, human resources director and diversity team sponsor, said the students are about to choose classes for high school and he hoped the fair “piqued their interest in math and science.”

Marathon is hosting sessions twice a day at 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each weekday until Sept. 30.