On Thursday Feb. 26 the National Technical Honor Society and SkillsUSA presented Career Day 2015. Students traveled between presentations to hear from a variety of professionals, including graphic designers, scientific researchers and weekend Fox 5 News anchor Antwan Lewis.
Lewis was contacted by senior Matt Recchia of West Long Branch through Twitter, along with seniors Mike Wheeler and John Gray, both of Wall.
“Antwan definitely brought a positive vibe to Career Day,” Recchia said. “You could tell he’s very passionate about what he does … He made the students much more interested in Career Day, in my opinion. He was making people laugh in each presentation.”
To see a range of presenters, students were placed into one of three tracks, then visited a different set of speakers located in separate rooms throughout the session. Presentations lasted 20 minutes and typically concluded with a question and answer session.
Freshman Mary Lykes of Howell said she benefitted from the day devoted to potential career paths.
“It exposed me to careers I hadn’t previously considered before,” said Lykes.
In addition to being exposed to new ideas, students appreciated the experiences that some of the presenters offered, including creating a pitch for a product with a graphic and slogan.
Sophomore Evelyn Gallagher of Manasquan felt Career Day was valuable because many of the presenters allowed students to learn about careers that they are potentially interested in. For Gallagher, a career in art is one of them. .
“I really liked the art director. It was really interesting because she had us actually do a project and be active, which really helped us learn and get a feel for what the field is like.”
Junior Sallie Haas of Deal, was able to walk around and see more presentations than most while taking pictures for Photo Club. She said she enjoyed the presentations for their diversity, yet connection to the focus of CHS.
“They were all somehow connected to communications, but in different ways. They [the presenters] were really cool people,” Haas said.