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Sage Hill School's Career Panel and Career Day
The Sage Hill experience extends far beyond the classroom, through the broad range of programs we offer. Head of School Gordon McNeill reflects on how our recent Career Days laid the groundwork for possible internships, college majors, and future professions.
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I came across this cartoon the other day and wanted to include it in this blog post because it so accurately depicts the overriding theme of our Career Day series.
The trajectory from Sage Hill School to the pinnacle of our students’ future careers is not the straight line in the first illustration, but the unpredictable path illustrated below. That was one of the clearest take-away messages from our Career Panel Day and Career Speaker Series last week. Planned entirely by Sage Hill parents, these two events give our students a unique opportunity to hear from a wide range of professionals about how they reached their levels of success. We don’t expect high school students to know what they are going to do with the rest of their lives, and even if they think they know, those plans are likely to change. But Career Day can help to inspire, to ignite a spark, and to enlighten our students about the multitude of opportunities out there.
Career Panel Day brought four diverse professionals to Wilkins Town Square for an informal Q & A with the entire student body. The panel included Larry Acosta, Founder of the Urban Youth Workers Institute; Jennifer Durham, Chief Compliance Officer and a managing director at PIMCO; Tommy Knapp, a surfwear entrepreneur and an assistant professor at USC; and Joe Lewis, Dean of UCI’s School of the Arts and a practicing artist.
Part of what I loved about the panel was that they represented very different perspectives, from nonprofits, academia, the arts, entrepreneurship, and business. And yet, the messages from each of them were similar. Knapp summed it up well by saying do what you love and find a way to get paid for it. The consummate entrepreneur, he had never been interviewed for a job until he applied to teach at USC.
Part of what I loved about the panel was that they represented very different perspectives, from nonprofits, academia, the arts, entrepreneurship, and business. And yet, the messages from each of them were similar. Knapp summed it up well by saying do what you love and find a way to get paid for it. The consummate entrepreneur, he had never been interviewed for a job until he applied to teach at USC.
Acosta noted that people who work for the betterment of others are the happiest, and he encouraged students to find their calling and find a way to give back. A fitting message given our commitment to public purpose at Sage Hill. Lewis said life is just one long learning experience. He noted that his generation was the last in which the majority would follow a single career path, whereas our students are likely to change careers 3-4 times in their adult lives. Durham told our students not to be afraid to take chances, to make mistakes and to learn from them. If not for her own risk-taking, she would not be one of the few female managing directors at PIMCO. And, in a great piece of advice for the students’ immediate future, Durham encouraged them to supplement their college majors with electives that will enrich their learning experience, even if they don't relate directly to their career goals.
For Career Day last week, students chose two small group career seminars to attend from a choice of 16 fascinating, accomplished speakers. Most were parents of Sage Hill students, and we were thrilled to include two alumni, medical student Kara Percival (‘07) and actor Alex Greer (‘14). In the seminars, the students learned more specifically about each speaker’s career path—most of which look more like the bottom illustration than the top one. They had the chance to ask questions and learn what it might be like to work in the speakers’ fields. Among our speakers were an architect, a psychologist, an engineer, an attorney, a producer of television commercials, several entrepreneurs and business people, and two physicians.
Career Day also serves as a springboard for the Sage Hill Internship Program (SHIP), with many of the speakers offering internships or shadow days to our students over the summer. Launched last year, SHIP provided meaningful, educational opportunities to roughly two dozen Sage Hill students. Our goal is to grow the program further this summer. In order to do so, we need parents to offer opportunities in their workplaces, whether for a few hours, days or weeks. All students seeking internships must first complete a resume and interviewing workshop, and they are responsible for their own applications, interviews and transportation to the worksite. If you are interested in offering an internship or shadow day, please contact Jason Gregory at gregoryj@sagehillschool.org.
Sage Hill School
A college preparatory independent day school for grades 7-12.
20402 Newport Coast Drive, Newport Coast, CA 92657
Phone: 949.219.0100 | Fax: 949.219.1399
20402 Newport Coast Drive, Newport Coast, CA 92657
Phone: 949.219.0100 | Fax: 949.219.1399
Sage Hill School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship programs, and athletic and other School administered programs.