Visiting Professionals Present Career Options

A special “career day” offered information to sophomores on a variety of career options from professionals who visited campus on March 7.

Prior to the event, students signed up to attend 2 separate sessions. Each guest speaker, most of whom were Campolindo parents, presented to small groups for 20 minutes in their respective sessions.

College and Career counselor Joan Batcheller said, “The point of Career Day is to get exposure to different careers they haven’t thought about or if there are ones that they are interested in, to hear what it is and the path that these individuals took to get where they are.”

Highlighted careers included nurses and local government officials. Batcheller said, “I think it speaks to our community that there are a lot of people who want to tell their story… Juniors and seniors have told me that they went to career day and they heard a speaker and they didn’t realize that something was a profession or career.”

Sophomore Methan Teker said, “It opened my eyes to college as being more of a gateway towards careers than it is a destination. It inspires me to think beyond college and what I want to do after that, so I can shape college to fit that.”

Batcheller believes the event is helpful to many students who have yet to determine a career path.

Visiting Radiologic technician Vicki Farrell said she discovered, “I had choices that I didn’t know existed” when she attended a career day when she was in high school

Jeanette Fritzky, who presented on local government, said, “Too early in life, we assume that we can smoothly pick or assign a career for the future – but life is long, and our interests and experiences grow and change, so we need to allow for that and expect it.”

Natasha Grasso, who spoke about the fashion industry, said, “Developing a frame of reference and learning about an industry is an important and ongoing process and I hope I was able to shed some light on areas of manufacturing, business, and design.”

This was the 2nd edition of the career day for sophomores.  Last year’s initial event was well received by the class of 2019.

The event is also helpful to sophomores who are working on their career projects, an English assignment requiring research on a profession in which the students are interested.

Batcheller hoped the students realized that “it is a journey and people have lots of different careers before they get where they are and that’s a good thing.”