June 5, 2007

Talking about careers

Professionals descend on Willow Glen High Annual Career Day quite successful

By Carol Rosen
Editor

At least 130 adults attended Willow Glen High School on May 31. They came to talk about their careers and give students points about what they do for a living and how they got there.

One of the Willow Glen High Career Day panels included a couple of elected politicians and a member of the Central Labor Council. Pictured talking to the students are Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, standing right, District 6 City Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio, left, and, seated at far right, Steve Preminger, community service director, Central Labor Council. Photos by Michele Berolone

It was quite a sight as the adults followed signs marked with balloons for parking held up by smiling and sometimes sleepy teens. There were more students waiting at the parking lot to guide their guests through the maze of buildings to the library where they were greeted by Willow Glen Foundation personnel and offered a continental breakfast. Most of these adults stood or sat in groups meeting each other and talking. Some appeared slightly nervous, while others seemed excited.

After a brief speech by Principal Elaine Farace, the panelists were divided into their particular groups and escorted to their classrooms. There they spent approximately three hours talking to three different groups of students about their careers and how they got to be where they are today.

The panelists came from all walks of life and represented careers as diverse as judges and lawyers to nurses and physicists. There were musicians and politicians, police and chemists, shop owners and criminalists, professors and engineers, human resource managers and software developers, urban planners and financiers, physicians and video producers and, of course, there was a group of writers and editors. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a career that wasn’t represented.

Rachel Thompson of the Professional Culinary Institute of Campbell headed a panel about working as a chef. Both students and other panelists wanted to participate in this panel until they found out Thompson had brought no food. Photo by Michele Berolone

Some of the panelists were famous, at least in our area. For example, San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis was a panelist as well as Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, City Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio and former candidate for city council, Steve Tedesco, the current CEO of the Boys and Girls Club.

It actually was quite fun serving on the panel. The students listened closely and, at least in the writers and editors panel, no one fell asleep. Careers were discussed and students asked questions, many of them thoughtful and insightful about careers and about writing itself. In fact, one student asked likely the most difficult thing for a writer, what do you do when writer’s block hits?

The answer, like the question, isn’t simple, but three of the panelists suggested just writing—writing around the topic, putting down all your thoughts and then going back and making them readable. Other questions dealt with getting work published, whether poems, novels or short stories.