Their school year has just started, but already students at Rugby High School are looking to the future.

Two of the school’s classes headed to career fairs in the last week, with the junior class heading to Dakota College at Bottineau on Monday before the sophomores attended a career fair in Minot on Thursday.

Rugby High School counselor Julie Sjol said it’s important to get students thinking about what careers might interest them and how they’d take a path to those careers.

“It gets them thinking what kind of classes should I be taking,” she said. “Maybe taking school more seriously so they can get those scholarships.”

In Bottineau, students broke into smaller groups, learning about professional use of social networking, students, loans, workplace skills, and got tips on credit cards and college life.

Sjol said there were a number of business and colleges represented, from as far away as South Dakota and Minnesota.

“Some kids want to go somewhere new so they can start fresh and develop new friendships,” she said.

Local businesses, like Rugby Manufacturing, were also represented.

Sjol said that career fairs probably wouldn’t benefit freshmen, especially in the fall of the year, but with so many options, it takes students plenty of time to make up their mind on potential careers.

“We started last year taking them as sophomores,” she said. “Kids are so undecided, sometimes, by the time they are seniors.”