Career Day 2024
Young people often wonder how school relates to their lives. Understanding that exposure to ideas may help a young person imagine experiences beyond personal life experiences, The Sharon Academy offers a Career Day in the spring. This year the middle school students were invited to join the high school students in a morning of imagining their futures.
A high school education is foundational and can mean the end of formal education or a launching pad for further study. Post-secondary choices may include college, vocational training, the military, and the workforce. On April 15, eighteen panelists comprised of alumni and other community members described their work and recounted their career paths. Professions included scientists, software engineers, social workers, and business owners.
College and Career Advisor Georgia Beatty opened the session by sharing that the 11th-grade post-secondary planning class had defined an odyssey as a long wandering or voyage, sometimes marked by many changes of fortune. The class talked about seeking versus finding—where seeking means having a goal; finding means being receptive to the unexpected, to new ideas, and to new potential life paths. With these ideas in mind, Georgia encouraged the audience to consider life after college by setting and seeking goals and by being receptive to the unexpected.
She and many of the speakers underscored the idea that there is no One Path, no One Right Way, but that curiosity triggers exploration and defines each person’s odyssey. Georgia then introduced 11th grader Connor Bowen Connor who shared his thought process as inspired by the 11th grade post-secondary planning class. With geology as his main passion, his “Plan A” involves perfecting his German language skills enough to study in Germany; Plan B would be to remain in the US for his studies. Whether any of his plans pan out is less the point; what matters is that intention-setting helps guide action; action leads to experience and opportunities.
After briefly introducing themselves, the Career Day guests met with students in small breakout sessions where students could ask questions about their jobs, their lives, and how they got to be where they are.
Of all the panelists, the six alumni who participated may have been the most inspirational, not just because they were the easiest models for TSA students to identify with, but also because making a difference in the world is part of the school’s mission, and these alumni embodied that with intelligent, independent, and creative thinking about the choices that led to their current occupations.
Neurology researcher Elyza Kelly, PhD, TSA’08, quipped that she loved being in school so much that she went to college and to graduate school, earning a PhD in neuroscience. Today she is still studying as a researcher in a lab at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Software Engineer Roslyn Parker, TSA‘18 recalled that a game design class at TSA sparked her fascination with programming. She made a game in which a cat had to eat mice and run away from dogs; players would have to make the cat eat all the mice to advance to the next level. Roslyn then enrolled in the VAST program where she further built her programming skills. Ultimately, she earned a Computer Software Engineering degree from Vermont Tech and today she works remotely as a Business Operations Developer at Red River.
Mahar Sperling, TSA ‘16, also knew early on what direction he should go, which was to join his family’s publishing business, Inner Traditions. He recalled his work on the high school Interim’s playbill as an early exposure to printing and the publications production process. Building on that, he graduated from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individual Study and returned to Vermont as the company’s Special Projects Program Manager
One of the most popular breakout groups was with Pilot Luke Crocker who attended TSA 2007-2010. Although he ultimately transferred to The Landmark School to play baseball, his affection for TSA remained. After graduating from Clark University with a degree in Political Science, a family gave him a Discovery Flight gift certificate, which ignited his passion for flying. Today he pilots Boeing 777s for Atlas Air.
Missing: Roslyn Parker, TSA‘18, Mahar Sperling, TSA‘16, Cora Swanberg, TSA‘14.
A new event this year was a Zoom session with Lowry Newswanger, TSA’20, Hattie Byrne, TSA ‘22, Amy Barnhart, TSA’21, Cedric Rule-Becker, TSA’20, and Peter North, TSA’21, alumni who are still in college. They met with 11th graders in a special breakout session to discuss college life and their life plans.
Many panelists agreed that they are in very different jobs than they had imagined as high school students and that their journeys were not linear. Some had clear plans that had to be adjusted while others had no plans at all. In any case, being prepared to leverage opportunities that presented themselves was instrumental in their ultimate destinations.
The morning closed with Ben Guaraldi, programmer, filmmaker, performer, Quaker, who left students with three admonishments: Try to learn who you are; Learn skills; Do things, go places, and meet people
Thanks to Assistant Head of School Kate Fabrikant and College and Career Advisor Georgia Beatty for organizing the event.