Foothills Kids Magazine to explore careers and entrepreneurship in fall edition

Foothills Kids Magazine is set to inspire the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs with its fall 2024 edition, focusing on career paths and entrepreneurship for young minds.

The issue will highlight careers in western North Carolina such as manufacturing and careers in STEM. The magazine will also address artificial intelligence in the workplace and jobs at local data centers as well as how entrepreneurs create business plans, sales pitches, budgets, and company logos.

Carmen Eckard, owner and publisher of Foothills Digest and Foothills Kids Magazine, is a former Catawba County Schools classroom teacher.

Eckard says the idea for this edition came after hearing someone ask a child what they wanted to be when they grew up. She remembered how the question made her feel “bad” when she was a child because she didn’t have an answer.

This edition is personal for Eckard because she says it’s the magazine she needed growing up. She believes this edition will help kids know what studies and hobbies to focus on as they get older.

“Kids’ brains are a lot more elastic than ours, and they have the capacity to learn quickly and deeply. The world is still wide open to them,” Eckard said. “If they can identify what career paths are of interest while they are young, they can be sure not to limit themselves by missing important early education.”

Eckard believes it is equally important for children to be exposed to entrepreneurship.

“Unless your mom or dad is an entrepreneur, most kids never pick up the idea that you can start your own business,” Eckard started. “I was lucky, because my dad was always an entrepreneur, and I saw from an early age that I could forge my own path. I want to do my part to make sure other kids know that.”

As a follow-up to the magazine, the organization is set to host a “Foothills Futurepreneurs Fair” in March 2025.

Eckard affirms that this edition is not to pressure children into knowing exactly what they want to be, but to think about their interests and skills. She believes children in third through fifth grades are starting to discover their individual strengths and interests, making it a good time to begin thinking about careers.

“We are showing them how extremely vast the field of options for careers truly is. Most people don’t know what they want to be when they are 10, and that is absolutely OK,” Eckard said. “It’s enough to be thinking about what you enjoy doing and practicing to get better at the natural skills you have.”

Foothills Kids Magazine is distributed quarterly to third to fifth grade public school students in Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, and Catawba counties.