Schools

Masuk Career Day: Future Occupations On Display

What will Masuk High School seniors study for in college? What career paths will they take? This year's annual Career Day gave students a wide range of options to consider, from working as a chef, a police officer or an accountant to a producer for public access television.

Sarah Iannarone, an alum from Masuk's Class of 2007, is employed as a stage manager for the Downtown Cabaret Theatre in Bridgeport. She served as one of the volunteers with table displays in the school media center Thursday.

"A lot of students asked how I got into theatre and stage management, because it's sort of an unusual career path — and how you get jobs," Iannarone said.

Of Career Day, she said, "I think it's great. I went to this when I was here. You can see what options there are and careers you hadn't thought of."

Nino Martino, executive chef of The Waterview in Monroe, and Niki Bisordi, the pastry chef there, had a table for the food industry. Martino said they cater weddings every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and corporate events during the rest of the week.

"We've had a lot of kids come through our program from Masuk's home economics class with Chef Diaz, whether they're making pastries with Niki or doing culinary with me," Martino said.

During Career Day, Martino said students "were interested in the timing, the schooling and the pay."

Bisordi said, "What I got a lot of is, 'Do you enjoy what you do for a living?'"

Penny Ploski, a guidance counselor at Masuk, is head of the Citizens Advisory Committee, which organized Career Day.

"I took over for Dave York and when I moved into his office there were files and files on Career Day," she said. "It goes back at least to the early '80's."

Ploski said she believes students benefit from seeing a wide variety of careers represented. "I think it's an easy set-up for the kids to feel comfortable to go talk to people. Teachers were encouraged to give an assignment that will push the kids to talk to a variety of careers and sometimes it opens their minds to careers they wouldn't otherwise consider."

Ploski has been involved with Career Day for the past three years.

"I think the kids were more engaged this year," she said. "Maybe the iPad Mini raffle helped."

Professionals at each table gave out raffle tickets to students who showed a strong interest in their conversations and asked good questions.

Ben Maini of Monroe donated the iPad Mini. He volunteered too, representing Reynolds & Rowella LLP: Full Service Accounting & Financial Solutions, which has offices in Ridgefield and New Canaan.   


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