CAREER DAY

Maclay Upper School Takes Part In Annual Career Day Event

BY JOLIE BAUS

From lectures on evaluating the psychological state of navy seals to excavating ancient artifacts, Maclay students had no shortage of options when checking out possible professions at this year’s Career Day. This past Friday on Dec. 3, Maclay’s upper school body participated in one of Maclay’s annual events, Career Day. High schoolers were able to select three speakers to visit from which they would be informed on particular fields of work. For 80 minutes, students alternated between the designated rooms and listened to professionals speak about their careers.

Depending on the career and speaker, the style of presentation varied. Decorative PowerPoint and an interview-esque conversation were the primary methods to engage students. Popular topics included the most rewarding aspects of a career, challenges that come with the profession and what an average, working day looks like. Lectures caught the eye of some Marauders due to sheer interest, while others sought concrete advice on what they wanted to pursue as a career.

“I was pretty interested in, maybe, not necessarily being a psychologist, but I was interested in the path it took her to get there,” senior Iman Iqbal said. “That’s something I’ll definitely keep in mind.”

Many of the speakers were originally Maclay students themselves, while others were parents or spouses of members of the Maclay community. Most participants and spectators seemed to meet a general consensus on the event’s importance and why it remains a tradition at Maclay.

“As a freshman, or sophomore, or junior and even senior in high school, it’s sometimes hard to know where you want to go and what you want to do,” English teacher Jessica Kerner said. “Having the opportunity to listen to someone who maybe didn’t take the traditional route to get there I think is valuable, as someone who wanted to be a teacher since I was three-years-old.”

While the lectures focused on the fundamentals of the careers, they also touched on the process of entering those lines of work. The concept of being able to take various paths to reach a desired destination was emphasized throughout the event.

“I’ve always liked math, and I was originally a business major,” math teacher and Career Day education speaker Katy Gimbel said. “I was helping friends out with math in college, and one of my friends suggested ‘you should be a math teacher.’ I started thinking about it and thought ‘that sounds really fun.’”

With the efforts of the speakers and numerous questions from the students, several Marauders seemed to consider Career Day a success in terms of expanding their horizons with potential work in the future.

“I’m more interested in other career options than I thought before I came to see everyone,” Iqbal said. “I think there were less speakers than normal, but because they were all very varied, I got to see very different professions and backgrounds and how they got to their careers. I thought that was really interesting, and I liked that.”

GEM OF A CAREER. ARCHAEOLOGIST THADRA STANTON PAINTS A PICTURE OF WHAT A TYPICAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG LOOKS LIKE FOR STUDENTS. STANTON WAS ONE EXAMPLE OF CAREER DAY’S IN-PERSON SPEAKERS, WHICH ALLOWED HER TO INTERACT WITH THE STUDENTS AND ANSWER QUESTIONS LIVE.

EDUCATION ON EDUCATORS. MATH TEACHER KATY GIMBEL DISCUSSES THE UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES THAT COME WITH BEING AN EDUCATOR. GIMBEL HAS BEEN A PART OF THE MACLAY COMMUNITY AS BOTH A STUDENT AND NOW A TEACHER, AND SHE OFFERED INSIGHT TO HER STUDENTS ON HOW ASPIRATIONS CAN CHANGE IN THE FUTURE.

SEARCH: HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL? TECHNICAL PROGRAM MANAGER AND GOOGLE ASSISTANT ELI BUSEN VIRTUALLY TALKS ABOUT HIS JOURNEY TO GOOGLE IN LANGFORD HALL. WITH THE HELP OF ZOOM, CAREER DAY WAS ABLE TO BRING IN SPEAKERS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY AND OFFER A DIVERSE RANGE OF DIFFERENT CAREER PATHS FOR STUDENTS TO LEARN ABOUT.