Career Day Helps Seniors Look to the Future

In November, Loyola Academy’s Counseling Department hosted a series of Career Days for senior students with dozens of guest speakers representing a variety of professions from law, finance, technology, real estate, business, medicine and more. Each speaker provided diverse perspective and a valuable learning opportunity for seniors as they begin to consider their future paths.
“We brought in a variety of professionals from diverse careers and experiences so the students would have an opportunity to speak in a small group with a professional about his or her career path,” explains School Counselor Mrs. Sheila Blanchfield. “The goal for our students was to help them connect their interests, values and strengths to future career possibilities while giving them insight into paths of achievement.”

In a round-table discussion format, small groups of students listened as speakers described their career paths and any major turning points or milestones. One recurring theme that emerged was the importance of networking.

“It was beneficial for students to hear firsthand from professionals how networking has impacted their career path,” says Blanchfield, who reported that a number of students have already put this theory into practice. “We’ve heard back from several speakers that students have reached out to them inquiring about job shadowing, internships and volunteer opportunities.”   

School Counseling Department Chair Mr. William San Hamel II ’99 explains that the need to enhance career-related programming became apparent in last year’s review of the junior and senior Formation curriculum. "As part of our Formation Curriculum Review last school year, we came to recognize the need to enhance our lesson plans and programming as relates to the topic of careers when working with junior and senior students,” he says. “As a result, we invited Loyola Academy alumni as well as a variety of professionals from the community to come into the building to speak directly with seniors about their career path in small group settings.”

For many students, the experience was a positive one that shed new light on the important task of career preparation and planning.

“Advertising had always seemed interesting to me because it’s a field we encounter everyday through various media in our lives, but I️ didn’t know much about it,” saysTessa Volpe ’18. “I️ can totally see myself as one of the ‘creatives’ in advertising … I’m really grateful for career day and can now visualize myself in a field I️ was unfamiliar with before.”

Senior Mohammed Manzoor reflected,“Career Day gave Loyola seniors the chance to stop thinking narrowly and meet people from various occupations, opening up our eyes and giving us insight toward what we might want to study in college and, more importantly, what we might want to do for the rest of our lives.”


A very special thank you to our career day presenters:

Michael Begich (architect)
Chris Braier (physician’s assistant)
Joe Canham (project/operations manager)
Katie Cappitelli '04 (nurse practitioner)
Mary Kate Casey ’05 (physical therapist, personal trainer)
Rick Cenar (attorney)
Katie Christy (svp, director of human resources)
Tony Colosimo (director of corporate partnership)
Erin Conroy '07 (physical therapist)
Jodi Czarnik (Process Development Engineer)
Sunavo and Kranti Dasgupta (physicians)
Mary Dwyer '06 (real estate finance)
Brendan Egan ’07 (CEO, entrepreneur)
Kate Espinal (marketing)
Rich Espinal (bilingual psychotherapist)
Patrick Falso (president of Allegro Design Inc.)
Terry Gallagher (assistant professor and family nurse practitioner)
Todd Girkie (chief financial officer)
Matt Harness (journalist)
Asher Kach (program engineer)
Peter Kalenik (CPD)
Mo Khan (attorney)
Sherri Kirk (Research Chemist-Quality Management)
Lindsey Lococo (dance choreographer and professional artist)
Daniel Mortell ’06 (director of business development)
Erin Murphy ’00 (assistant vice president at Wintrust Wealth Services)
Tim Nierman (accountant)
Maura O’Keefe (physical therapist)
Kristine A. Paca (regional event specialist)
Paul Pryma (educational leader)
Darin Repp (senior director of Proof Global)
Nick Sandoval '07 (senior account manager)
Mary Jean Serene '00 (director, institutional investment solutions)
Peter Serene (director, senior project manager)
Willie Sneed (television engineer)
Tom Stanton ’94 (executive director)
Jeannine Vradenburg
Emma Walsh '12 (corporate engagement)
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