By: Cameryn Wheeler, Shield Writer, and Shield Staff
On Nov. 8, NRCA had a full day dedicated to high school students learning about different jobs. Career Day benefits students as they consider their path toward the next step in life.
On Career Day, students attended nine sessions lasting 30 minutes each. Organized by the Department of Academic Advising, headed by Director Susan Etheridge, the day was divided into three sets of informational sessions: morning, mid-morning, and afternoon. The presenters were NRCA parents, alumni, staff, and community members. Careers represented included a variety of areas of engineering, healthcare, marketing, human resources, sales, real estate, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, sports tech, wedding planning, financial advising, education, law enforcement, construction, law, app development, logistics, military service, and project management to name a few.
Career Day was an important part of helping students explore different career paths. Reese Ritter, a sophomore, said, “Learning about different skill sets for different jobs helped shape my career path. There were lots of skills and obligations in certain fields that I didn’t expect.”
Career Day also sparked interest in students in what specific careers they could pursue within a particular field. Freshman Maddie Burckart said, “I am interested in medical careers and thought the optometry career path was different and interesting.”
Some students found that the information they learned during Career Day relieved stress about finding the perfect college and major to meet their career goals. “I learned that most jobs care more about your last employment history than your major or where you went to college. It doesn’t take [an] Ivy League [education] to get a six-figure salary. It takes good interview skills and connections,” Ritter explained.
The sessions were also beneficial for the information students gathered about various jobs. “Learning about different jobs from different individuals will help me find what I am interested in doing later in life,” Burckart said. Presenters talked about the education requirements for jobs and gave insights into their daily routines at work.
High school students found Career Day to be a beneficial break from academics to explore, evaluate, and define their options for the future. “Career Day gave students an opportunity to learn about professions they are interested in and hopefully discover more about their strengths and weaknesses to narrow down a career path they may be interested in. Career Day helped me realize that many simple-seeming jobs get very complicated, such as supply chains and trade law,” Ritter said.