On November 4th, we hosted our annual speed career networking event for our high school students, known affectionately as Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Our volunteers, who represented many different fields, modeled career networking and shared their career stories in small groups of students. Students were able to learn best practices in networking, as well as the importance of maintaining relationships while building a career. You really never know when a contact can help you make something happen—or when you can get that fuzzy feeling of helping someone else out!
“I enjoyed seeing the spark in students’ eyes when they realized they had a lot of different career possibilities.” – Kim (Volunteer)
Each of our 30 volunteers was delighted to be there and answer questions. Volunteer Kim says, “I enjoyed seeing the spark in students’ eyes when they realized they had a lot of different career possibilities.” Because we had such a varied group of volunteers, our students were able find and speak to someone they related to. “A student let me know that she enjoyed speaking to me because of my diverse background,” notes volunteer Frank. First Graduate® student Luorong concurs: “I got to meet such nice and open people who were willing to tell and answer everything.”
And of course, our 75 students who attended really enjoyed the event as well. One student mentions that it was comforting to find out that “many of professionals did not know what they want in high school. They tried many different things.” Another student’s event highlight was “Learning about new careers I haven’t heard about before and expanding my knowledge on the ones I do know.” As our high schoolers begin taking the SATs and applying for colleges, it’s so incredibly important for them to be exposed to the limitless range of career possibilities. First Graduate’s students were “excited and motivated,” as volunteer Johanna tells us. She concludes with what we are all thinking: “very heartwarming.”
