About 1,500 high school seniors, Career Tech students and adult learners attended OSU Institute of Technology’s annual Career Encounters Tuesday to get an up-close, first-hand look at what the campus has to offer.

Every department offered several one-hour sessions on different aspects of their programs and attendees chose three sessions to attend during the day.

This year’s Career Encounters saw a 40 percent increase in the number of participants compared to last year. With parents, teachers and counselors factored in, that’s 1,700 people on campus for the event.

With almost 60 sessions to choose from, everything from a high voltage pole climbing contest, prosthetics workshop, aluminum foil boat construction project and 3D software demonstration were available to those visiting campus.

“They got to see and do everything. The scheduled activities were designed to help answer all of their questions and provide a level of expectation at OSUIT,” said Sable Wise, special events coordinator.

Allie Springer, a senior at Fairview High School in Fairview, Okla., said just after checking in Tuesday morning that she was attending College Prep 101, How to Be Successful in College and Photography Works.

“I wanted to see what my options are, what was offered,” said Springer, who had to get up at 5 a.m., to get to the Okmulgee campus for the event.

Those visiting also got a chance to meet the program’s faculty and staff one-on-one, interact and talk with current students and in some cases, even meet prospective employers.

Cody Countz, a senior at Meeker High School, said this was the second year he came to Career Encounters.

“I’m really interested in OSU. It’s the premier place for auto collision,” said Countz, who added OSUIT is the first college campus he’d ever been to. “The (auto collision) shop was crazy. It was huge, I loved it.”

It’s also an opportunity for prospective students to see what classes are like in the programs offered at OSUIT.

“Applied technology is what we do. Career Encounters is hands-on where you can actively participate and play around with the equipment,” Wise said.