The Fall 2017 Career Day Inc event was hosted by Clarke High School in East Meadow, NY and the day got off to a great start! Over 550 students were in attendance and anxious to hear from their choices of 58 professionals who were ready to meet with them and share their career journeys. The event kicked off with an assembly including Randy Shain of One on One Mentors and Michelle Kyriakides of Hofstra University’s Career Center. These experts, in addition to myself, got the students excited about the presentations ahead by sharing insights about the potential for career paths that may take twists and turns and challenging the students to be open-minded to careers they might be unfamiliar with and thinking about what skills might be needed for a 21st century profession.

As the students were engaging with professionals during their very powerful presentations of various careers (see brochure), something unexpected occurred and the school was evacuated due to an erroneous bomb scare. Months of hard work appeared lost. However, many wished we could have resumed or rescheduled the rest of the event and most wanted to experience this type of event again. In responses from presenters, 90% found that Career Day Inc.™ was an important program for high school students and 95% agreed they would gladly attend another Career Day Inc.™ event. Over 95% of teachers responding to our survey indicated that Career Day Inc.™'s event was well organized and valuable for all students. I was especially encouraged that 150 students were interested in applying for the Arie A. Bucheister Memorial Scholarship and the finalists’ applications are inspiring. The applications show that an event, such as the Career Day Inc.™ event, even with the abbreviated schedule can have an impact on a high school student’s future education, goals or training. We have been able to put several students in touch with professionals whose Career Day presentations inspired them as well as some professionals not in attendance, who are involved in careers outside of those they met with at Career Day.

Another remarkable realization came from the Clarke Career Day event-- these events are not only inspiring and meaningful for the students, they can also be an opportunity for presenters to network and build their own professional contacts as well as meet young people they may want to hire to work for their companies in the future.

From each Career Day Inc.™ event, I realize more and more the value that Career Day Inc.™ can provide for everyone in attendance!