This past Friday, the sophomore sea otters had their professional development day. The purpose of the day was to introduce different career fields to the class of 2027 and help the Royals explore their interests regarding future careers along with ideas of college, and what major they might want to do.
The day started in the Karcher Center with an inspiring intro speech from Shayna Marks ’04. Marks founded Citrine Marketing and spoke about her journey, including the challenges she faced along the way. After the speech, girls were sent into mini breakout rooms where they got a better understanding of various jobs.
The job fields that girls got to learn about included the following:
Business & Finance: Lisa Kasten ’87, Kelly Padilla ’16, Paulina Rios ’15
Marketing & Communications: Amanda Mondonedo ’09, Monique Reaves ’04, Madi Sutherland ’14
STEM: Caitlin Dinuzio ’11, Stephanie Kolbusz ’16, Isabella Lopez ’19
Education: Katie Bowen ’12, Carly Lee ’98, Lisa Miller ’86
Creative & Fashion/Makeup: Macy Cendejas ’14, Rachel Herrera ’88, Natalie Perez ’11
Law & Government: Jessica Linton ’14, Carrie Nocella ’95, Carla Zuniga, Alumna Parent ’19
Medicine/Health & Wellness: Gianna Durocher ’98, Kim Jebo ’03, Isabella Kearns ’14
No matter what you are interested in, there was a group for you. That’s what was so amazing about this day: no girl left the day feeling like there wasn’t a place for her. Sophomore Elizabeth Braatz shared, “I loved the professional development day! My favorite part was hearing from the marketing and communications panel. The alumni all had great advice and enjoyed making the cutest vision boards!”
Royals also better understood that you don’t need to have everything figured out before you graduate, and it’s okay to make mistakes along the way. This was expressed when asked the day about the day in general, Sophomore Sarah Vodhanel stated, “I think that Sophomore Professional Development Day really showed us how you don’t need a career set in stone after graduating high school or college. You can still make career changes if you feel like your choice was not what you truly wanted,”
As a Sophomore, I felt that I bonded more with my classmates but also gained a clearer understanding of my future goals. Needless to say, Sophomore Development Day was a huge success.
