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Schools

Career Exploration Day A Big Hit With Students At Grayslake Central

Students enthusiastically supported the new format used at this year's Career Exploration Day.

The annual Career Exploration Day at Grayslake Central High found students in various classrooms listening to guest speakers on a wide variety of potential employment opportunities open to them upon graduating from high school.

Yvonne DelZenero, Guidance Counselor, put together the program format, though she gives credit for the idea to Roz Lessem, Student Assistance Program (SAP) coordinator for Central High School. "We made some changes to our previous format because we wanted to create an environment more conducive to engaging the students in examining post-secondary career options," said DelZenero.

"The old format was more like a buffet line," said Glenn Miller, Head of College and Career Planning in the Guidance Department. "We lined up tables in the Big Gym and students just walked by and grabbed the swag and moved on through with limited interaction with the presenters."

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Miller credited DelZenero with doing an outstanding job for the first time experience with the new format. "Yvonne incorporated a seminar style approach to our event which gave the students the opportunity to select two careers they were interested in. They were then able to meet in a classroom in small groups to interact with the guest speakers."

The program featured 42 different guest speakers who shared their career experiences in 42 different fields as diverse as artist/caricaturist to business banker, aviation pilot to musician, athletic trainer to lawyer/paralegal.

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"Students hopefully learned that they need to be prepared and educated or they will experience great difficulty becoming employed," Miller said.

Miller, in fact, was one of the presenters in aviation/pilot/air force academy careers. In addition to being retired from the Air Force, he served on the faculty of the Institute of Aviation at the University of Illinois and one of his daughters is herself a commercial jet airline pilot!

DelZenero said it was an all school effort to bring in the 30 to 40 presenters necessary. "We tried to set the event up so that the presenters only had to give up a couple of hours in the morning of their busy schedules and then they could back to their jobs. Hayden Taylor did an awesome job of putting in the necessary orders and helped me with the tech department requests."

Mayor Linda Soto of Hainesville gave a great presentation a career in local government.

"I appreciated being asked to be involved. I really enjoyed the kids and would like to encourage more people from the community to get involved with this event," Soto said. "It is very important for high school students to be given an opportunity to see what career options are available to them. This was a very innovative event."

"The guest speakers were only too happy to come in and share their knowledge and experiences with our students," said Hayden Felipez-Taylor, guidance secretary. "They were all so excited to give back to the community. Many were graduates of Grayslake schools."

Community experts and high school staff with wide experiences spoke to students about possible career paths. Glen Roeck, high school social studies instructor and currently serving in the US Army (from the Reserves), and science teacher Dan Cahill discussed military careers.

John Bolger gave a presentation on educational administration careers while Bob Kay (English) shared information on legal and paralegal careers.

Andrea Penepaker (science student teacher) talked about her career as a pediatrician. Dustin Chierico and Jason Janczyk shared teaching career opportunities. Mark Kettering (district special education coordinator) spoke about the rewards of a career in special education.

Carolyn Hanson discussed graphic design as Chris Ellington spoke about building trades. Officer Chris Andrews presented on the always-popular police profession. Phil Balsano, who plays keyboards, sings in the awesome band 1969 with Hayden Felipez-Taylor, shed light on being a professional musician.

The band played the Hard Rock Café in Chicago on Friday, April 15 and at the United Center Concourse prior to the Bulls Playoff game last Tuesday. Check out the band on their website at music1969.com.

Glenn Gerdes, GCHS athletic trainer, talked with students about being an athletic trainer. Corey Schwalb gave a presentation on being an athletic director. Art Teacher Kay Silva spoke enthusiastically about a career as an artist/designer. Dan Laib’s seminar on being a professional artist/caricaturist was very warmly received by the students.

Jesse Renee of Jesse Renee Salon, 921 Main Street in Antioch, wowed students with a discussion about her chosen field of cosmetology.

"This event gave students a realistic taste of what they could expect in a career in each field and what the typical daily experiences were," said Felipez-Taylor.

Next year, Patch will be there to see how the second year of this exciting new format grows into a major igniter of student interest in post secondary careers. "It’s going to be bigger and better than ever with more presenters and more careers represented," promised DelZenero.

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