Holly Santero, Reporter
Starting at 7:00 Wednesday night on March 18th, the halls of NCHS began to buzz as hundreds of students headed to one of the 24 different rooms led by a vast range of business professionals. With approximately 70 different speakers, the Parent Faculty Association’s seventh biennial Career Night offered students valuable professional insight for potential occupations. “Career night allowed me to have a small look into my future and envision what I might want to do when I’m older,” junior Nick Thorkilson said. “It allowed me to think more specifically on what my interests are, what I want to do in college and what I should really get involved with in order to better prepare myself for a future career.”
With the vast range of professionals who spoke at Career Night, students found themselves intrigued with the advice and information offered at each presentation. “What really inspired me about Career Night was hearing about the amount of work that people put in to reach the success they have today,” junior Cece Moyle said. “Mr. Destefano, who works in the FBI, talked about the one percent acceptance rate for becoming an agent, and how motivated you have to be in order to get the job you really want.”
Senior Chase Williams was also impressed by his personalized Career Night experience with Dave Checketts, who presented about his career in hospitality. “I went to hear him talk about sports and business and came away thoroughly impressed and really happy with my decision to attend his speech,” Chase said. “I was one of few in the room so it was quite a personalized experience.”
Parent Faculty Association member and co-organizer of Career Night, Maria Weingarten, also found the event to be rewarding for both herself and the students. “It seemed to go off without a hitch, which is what you hope for when organizing an event like this,” Ms. Weingarten said.”I’ve done a lot of volunteering and this has been one of the most rewarding since it turned out to be such a great opportunity for all of the students.”
Through the Parent Faculty Association’s organization and execution of Career Night, students learned about jobs that they had not even considered before. “By going to Career Night, I got to listen and learn about jobs I didn’t even know I was interested in,” junior Jack Dinnie said.
Students broadened their previous views on potential careers and were able to change their initial mindsets on a variety of careers for the future. “I realized how many different opportunities there are for possible jobs in the future and it reminded me to keep an open mind for choosing a career choice later in life,” sophomore Mariana Ferreira said.
The Parent Faculty Association, the organization that planned and executed the entire event, viewed this year’s Career Night as a success. Chhaya Dagli, co-organizer of Career Night and PFA member, was pleased with the student and speaker involvement, and even looked ahead to suggest ways to improve Career Night in the future. “There’s a good portion of the student population who is missing out on this incredible experience, so what we could do better is encouraging and growing attendance for future events,” Ms. Dagli said. “What went well this year was that the speakers and over 500 students were really engaged and invested in getting the most out of the incredible learning event.”
Check out more Career Night recap with Riley Mushkin’s video
