College fair shows students opportunities available to them after high school
Published 5:00 am Wednesday, October 28, 2026
The Nixa School District held a college fair at the APEX Center on Wednesday, Oct. 21. A total of 2,200 students, including all of Nixa High School’s (NHS) juniors and seniors, as well as students from Spokane, Clever, Sparta, Spokane, and New Covenant Academy. Forty-five colleges and universities were represented at the college fair, as well as the military.
Ashley Finley, college and career counselor at Nixa High School, said that the college fair was designed to show the students what opportunities were available to them.
“Our college fair is set up for students to come out and hear from different colleges in the area,” she said, “ just to kind of see what kind of opportunities are available to them, what programs they offer, and then if they have any specific questions about specific schools, they can ask those.”
Ava Morgan, 17, a senior at NHS who plans to study law, said that while she plans to attend college out of state, she said she enjoyed seeing all the different programs available.
“It’s really cool to see all the different colleges around the area,” she said. “I’m probably not going to go to a college in like the area; I’m thinking more Chicago. But I think it’s still interesting to be able to talk to actual people from colleges, get to know more about kind of what the next year of my life’s going to look like.”
Jackson Nelson, 17, another NHS senior who plans to study microbiology and veterinary medicine, said that even though he had already chosen to go to Mizzou, it was still interesting to visit their booth at the college fair.
“It’s been good to get more information about them, even though I’ve already applied,” he said.
Finley said that in addition to getting information about the different schools, the students also received other benefits from attending the college fair.
“They get experience talking to adults,” she said. “They get to learn about different opportunities that are available to them. They get to hear about different college programs that maybe they didn’t even know existed. And then, when the seniors come out, hopefully they’re just finalizing their decisions about where they want to go to school and just getting some clarification on specific questions they might have.”
