Class of 2020's Career Opportunities

Recently, Mr. Wright challenged me and a few other seventh graders to come up with an idea that the seventh grade could do this year that would be unique to our class. After taking some time, I began to look at programs in the eighth grade and realized that they are involved in Day Off Campus [check out Margaret H.'s post here]. Day Off Campus is when the eighth grade leaves campus to shadow a professional for the day and learn about their career. At that moment, I came up with the idea for Career Day for the seventh grade which would allow us an opportunity to meet with professionals so we could have a better idea of what to do for our Day Off Campus next year. After speaking with Mr. Wright, I started to work on putting together Career Day. First, I had to find some students and teachers to help organize the event. I asked John K. ‘20, Lauren P. ‘20 and Lily E. ’20. The next step was to present the idea to our class Head Advisor, Mr. Templeton and get it approved by the Middle School Student Government Association (SGA).


Keynote speaker John Brazer addresses the Class of 2020.

After putting a team together and receiving approval, I then met with Mrs. Zighelboim from the Office of Institutional Advancement who helped me start to find alumni/ae and parents who would be interesting in participating in Career Day. During the planning process I emailed the fifteen professionals to see if they would like to participate, make sure the time worked, and to finalize the schedule for the day. I sent the last email about four days before the event to confirm everyone and to let them know how excited I was for the day. Although the day was planned, there were still a few things that occurred that made me nervous. Unfortunately, two speakers were unable to show. But with the help of Mr. Templeton and Mrs. Zurcher we were able to adjust the day.

The day finally arrived and I was both nervous and excited. After Mr. Templeton’s, introduction I introduced the keynote speaker, Mr. John Brazer, who is the Director of Publicity for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Actor Richard Lynnton talks about his craft.

Once he finished, then the day began and I was off to my first session. During the first session, I met with Mr. Matt Paul, who is an entrepreneur. His presentation very good and he gave out shirts of his business. Everyone seemed to enjoy his presentation. After his twenty minute talk, I headed hear from Mr. Richard Lynnton, who is an actor. He showed clips of his work and I thought it was really cool.

The day concluded after the sessions and we all went back to the Honickman Auditorium to wrap up. Overall, the day went well and everyone seemed to enjoy their presentations. As we head into next year, I feel we will all be prepared for Day Off Campus. I believe everyone had an exciting time hearing the presentations and I am so glad that everyone did. Career Day was a success and I can’t wait to organize more events as one of the new Co-Presidents of the SGA.

Lily, John, and Sasha, the student organizers of Career Day.

I would like to thank Mr. Templeton, Mr. Wright, Mrs. Zighelboim, and Mrs. Zurcher for all of their help. This day would have not been possible without my teachers and fellow students’ help.

~ Sasha C. '20