Portland Public Schools turned out in force to the 2015 NW Youth Careers Expo, sending about half of the roughly 6,000 students who attended this year’s statewide career-education event.

Today, the district published a story and photos about the Expo — and about the connections between PWA’s year-round work and the district’s priorities. Here’s an excerpt:

“Figuring out what you don’t want to do is just about as important as figuring out the thing that inspires your passion and fuels you,” (PPS Superintendent Carole) Smith told employers, students and officials who turned out for a breakfast to kick off the expo. “It’s become really awesome, the kinds of things employers are doing in order to create career days, internships, job shadows or hands-on experiences that really allow students to come in and figure out what you do and to see what is going on in the real world.”

Update: the district’s Brian Robertson also put together a great video about the Expo: