On April 4, McNicholas held its biennial career day, giving students a chance to listen to professionals in the careers that they might enter one day. It featured a wide variety of presenters, including business executives, doctors, salespeople, and more.
Many presenters were McNick alumni and/or student parents or family members, including keynote speaker Sarah Frank-Fogarty, a 1978 graduate. She has had a career in dance and choreography and also served on the McNicholas school board.
School Counselor and Career Day organizer Mrs. Erica Stablum said that she hoped that “[students] were thoughtful in their choices and that we were able to meet the needs of interests of our students as much as possible. It’s hard sometimes to find professionals in all of the career interest areas, but we really tried our best. I just hope it’s a positive experience, and I hope all the students get to learn from the professionals that they [chose].” In her opinion, the thing students gain the most from career day is “that face-to-face interaction, because you don’t always get that if you’re just researching careers online or doing your career interest inventory.” Stablum said she also hoped students brought questions to ask.
Many McNick students already have an idea of what they want to do in their adult life. Junior Spencer VonBusch said he wants to be a “firefighter, because it’s a good and strong career to go into.”
Senior Katie Noble wants to be “journalist because I enjoy it and have a passion for it,” and freshman Meghan Runte wants to be “a special education teacher and an author on the side” because she “had a friend growing up with down syndrome, and I loved getting to know her and seeing what her life was like.”
Many students also know what they want to major in during college like chemistry, education, business, communications, pre-med, law, biology, dance, biochemistry, information technology, aerospace engineering, biomedical sciences, and more.
Sophomore Nick Geraci, who hopes to go into sports broadcasting or analytics, said that he learned about “the classes I had to take and showed me what I’d have to do to get that type of job.” He also added that, “It made me more interested and more knowledgeable about what I need to do to pursue that career effectively.” Geraci was surprised during Mr. Brian Combs’s presentation on broadcasting when “he talked about how students with such interest should take digital media art classes because they have to be able to do everything now. It’s not just being a news anchor; it’s being a news anchor and being able to post on the web and set up your own equipment. You have to be able to do everything.” Finally, he said that it would be better if there were “more sessions, that are a little longer. Take away the keynote and make it only sessions.”
The McNicholas Milestone 