CHARLOTTE -- Area middle school students packed Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte on Wednesday to learn a valuable lesson.

Time Warner Cable News anchor Christina Watkins was one of several area professionals participating in the CIAA Education Day event.

The event is designed to teach students about different career paths.

"My message to them is, there is some type of Science Tecnology Engineering and Math aspect in every persone life. You never know, there is tecnoloy in your cell phone, we have programmers and developers at NASA and tie in moble applications,” said Brandon Haygood, HR specialist for NASA.

Nearly 6000 students participated in the event.