A group of about 30 Edison High School students got a first-hand look at what happens at a Fortune 500 company on Tuesday.

The event held at Williams, a Tulsa-based energy infrastructure firm focused on natural gas, was part of the Tulsa Regional Chamber-led Career Exploration initiative. Announced in January by Chamber Chair Bill Knight, the initiative pairs local employers with high school students from Tulsa Public Schools to offer them real-world career discovery.

Overseen by Rue Ramsey, the Chamber’s vice president of workforce and talent strategies, Tuesday’s field trip was the third of 10 such experiences the Chamber will coordinate in 2025. It was led by Mikeale Campbell, diversity and inclusion manager for Williams.

“I always joke that I grew up in north Tulsa and I saw this building, but I had no idea what happened here,” Campbell said of the 667-foot BOK Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Tulsa that houses Williams and other companies.

“That’s been like a big push for us in recent years. There are so many people who live in Tulsa – we recruit a lot from outside, too – who live here and have no idea what we do. You just think about all the missed opportunities.”

Williams handles roughly 30% of the nation’s natural gas through transmission, gathering and processing systems, operating tens of thousands of miles of critical infrastructure that serves major markets around the country.

Tuesday’s tour took Edison students from building’s lower-level plaza and food court all the way to offices on the 51^st floor, where they were treated to a bird’s eye view of the city.

“More and more, we try to think about how to get more ninth- through 12^th-graders in the building to build their excitement,” Campbell said. “This (career) is attainable. These aren’t all high-degree jobs. There are a range of jobs. We’ve had some success with that kind of approach.”

Eva Vindas, college and career advisor at Edison, was among the chaperones Tuesday.

“Without these kinds of opportunities, the students may never get inside of an office building and see how it functions and how they can fit in,” Vindas said. “It’s super important. I’m so grateful.”

Williams employs about 5,700 people nationwide, including about 1,700 in Tulsa, Campbell said.

“They (students) were very excited,” Vindas said. “You just feel it. I’m a college and career advisor because when I got to college, I cried. I didn’t feel like I belonged there. Nobody had shown me what to do. No one had been to college in my family.

“That’s why it’s important to do this work and to have the partnerships we do, so these students never have to feel the way I did.”