Mariana Illarramendi, Reporter
@Marianaillarra3
In a world filled with endless possibilities, students are allowed to dream big. While some haven’t a clue what they want to pursue, a few select students have become infatuated by certain careers
Freshman Ben Skrelunas dreams of becoming an engineer but he has not decided what kind. “I like engineering because it is such a large and emerging field, 5 million jobs will become available in the next two or three years,” Ben said.
Despite being the youngest participant, Ben joined the high school’s VEX Robotics team when he was only in fifth grade. “Engineer is such a large umbrella term, Mr. Zambrano’s class helped me understand that there is a lot more that goes into it than I originally thought. You’re not just sitting down and making stuff, it is a real challenge,” Ben said. “Additionally there are so many kinds of engineers I could grow up to be, such as a battery designer for Tesla.”
Similar to Ben’s passion for engineering, Junior Lukas Brown’s passion for architecture began at an early age. “My dad is an architect so I grew up around the idea, I remember the moment I started drawing, I was pretty young and I noticed my older sister drawing really cool cartoons,” Lukas said. “Immediately I wanted to give it a go and I did, but I realized I wasn’t as good as her yet, that made me keep trying and soon I wanted to doodle 24/7 during class.”
Lukas quickly realized that he felt best with a pencil in hand. “In fourth grade I won an art award at south school, and I was then recommended for “CIA-challenge in art” after school at Saxe, both those kept me hooked,” Lukas said. “To me, the coolest thing about architecture is the thought of having an idea and getting it down on a piece of paper for other people to see. Architectural capacity to express your emotions is incredible and I see this in my dad’s projects everyday.”
You’ve probably seen senior Austin Platt on the NCTV broadcast, but what you may not know is that he is set on a career in sports broadcasting. “I grew up in a sporty family, we always went to Yankee games and I played many sports growing up and watched them round the clock,” Austin said. “In fact I skipped the Nickelodeon phase most kids went through and stayed up to watch more sports!”
For Austin, commentating is an authentic career in the sense that you are receiving and analyzing information at the same time as the audience. “We all know sports bring people together and they have the grand capacity to inspire,” Austin said. “If you look at individual athletes, many of them go through several ups and downs, we can learn and gain strength from them”
Austin remembers the moment he fell in love with TV broadcasting, it was his sophomore year in the NCTV studio. “We had to create a Parody and I imitated Harvey Duplock with a tornado warning. It was only a one minute segment but it was my tipping point, I fell in love,” Austin said. I loved to know our broadcasts were being posted on Youtube and am very fortunate to know what I want to do with my life because of this class.”
Senior Ellie Grogan is looking to pursue a career in the medical field. She is an EMT for Westport EMS and is most interested in Neurology and Alzheuimers research. “Wanting to go into the medical field was honestly an overtime thing, it was about figuring out what I value and enjoy,” she said. “For me this is being with patients and the capacity to do medical and scientific research.”
“I trace my passion for neuroscience back to fifth grade at Saxe with Ms. Rendi where we did a project about the nervous system, it always interested me so I casually started reading about it in science journals,” Ellie said. “A close family friend having Alzheimer’s disease sparked my interest for something called precision medicine which means looking at the risk factors and anatomical and functional interest for different people with natural different brain structures.” Ellie’s favorite thing is how many interesting ways one can learn about the mind and how one can answer a surprising amount of day to day questions through neuroscience.
Senior and Captain of the Model UN team Olivia Licata is hoping to someday become a politician. She has a passion for current events and international affairs. “I joined Model UN in fifth grade at Saxe, at the time there were only three of us in the club, and I did it because my teacher told me it would be a good fit.” Olivia said. “The past couple of years in politics have exposed us to more injustice than I ever thought was possible. I’ve been opening my eyes lately and we all fear people in positions of power who aren’t always honest.”
This year Olivia became really involved in the election where she joined the league of women’s voters, a non partisan organization, which focuses on voter registration and phone banking. “I have a desire to make a change, and want to better learn how to address situations and gain problem solving skills next year at college, it is the only way to really better the world,” she said.
If we look out for our individual passions, formulated by our own experiences, we will find worthwhile careers and dreams just as Ben, Lukas, Austin, Ellie, and Olivia have. Their diverse interests are exactly what makes our society function.
