On Monday, April 8, 2024, a different kind of learning took place at Shorecrest for Upper School students—Career Day. A day filled with listening, networking, and inspiration, students left the premises newly acquainted with a myriad of professionals and careers.

     Career Day’s success is attributed to the leadership of Director of Technology and Media Services Anna Baralt, Director of the Ross Roeder Institute Earl Walton, the STEAM Club, the Career Club, junior Ava Peters, sophomore Leilani MacIntyre, and junior Noah Jaffee. 

     The day kicked off with the keynote speaker Wesley Bean, U.S. Chief Revenue Officer of Catalina Marketing, who challenged students to think of careers as “chapters in a book based on passion influenced by life experiences that motivate one to do something.” 

     When faced with a question of what students want to do or become, he warned students not to take it lightly and just fill in a word. He explained that the foundation of any career always starts with an influence from someone, something, or the lack thereof, which turns into passion. Some people develop that passion early on, some don’t.  He advised students to give themselves time for experiences so that their passion can unfold. To do that, he said, “One must always be curious.”

     When asked about the opening keynote speaker, junior Sarah Ayscue said, “I thought he was extremely impressive. I could not imagine how someone could fit so much into their life and still be so successful. I had thought of choosing a career as a straightforward process, but [Career Day] helped to broaden my horizons and consider more options.”

     Baralt emphasized Bean’s willingness to take risks throughout his career as the most important aspect of his presentation. She said, “What was valuable from his session were the pivots that he made. He could’ve taken the easy route and had a successful career, but it would not have been as fulfilling and meaningful. Being able to take risks, I think that lesson was super important to the students.”

     From there, students could choose to attend their speakers of choice during two back-to-back breakout sessions. They chose from 18 business professionals from various industries who came to speak about their careers and life experiences. A complete list of speakers and their respective industries can be found here: 

https://sites.google.com/shorecrest.org/steam-and-career-clubs-connect/home?authuser=0

     One of the goals for the day was to broaden high school students’ horizons. Some of the industries represented were medical engineering, finance, data analytics, international business, artificial intelligence, geology, veterinary medicine, marketing, recruitment, and entrepreneurship.

     Upon listening to Darla Hutton, Vice President Asia Commercial Operations and Marketing of Intuitive, junior Max Bachinsky said, “It strengthened and solidified my interest in pre-med as a future career path. Talking to someone who’s experienced in the field was great; opportunities like that in high school aren’t normal.”

      Sophomore Reece Campbell attended a breakout session with guest speaker Anthony Falcone ‘15, an Assurance Senior Associate at PwC. He said, “[Career Day] was helpful and a good use of the day. I walked out of the event with a different perspective on how important internships and putting yourself out there to gain experience are. I realized the importance of mentors [networking], using their knowledge to help you.” Campbell added that he wants to be an engineer and maybe start his own business someday.

     Junior Carson Granese, who loves machine learning, was fascinated by Cole Smith ‘15 and their discussion about the brain and AI modeling, considering both the benefits and drawbacks. He said, “After talking to Cole Smith, I learned not to be afraid of AI removing jobs because it will also create new jobs.”

     About the day, Walton said, “[It was] not only positive to see active participation from the students, but I was very pleased to see so many professionals willing to come to campus to support our students. The feedback I got from the speakers was also positive. They were impressed with the level of engagement of the students and the types of questions they asked after the presentations.”