On the afternoon of Monday, January 29, 2018 at least five seniors and alumni of the College Experience volunteered time out of their busy schedules to serve as guest speakers for the Employment Prep class instructed by Katie O’Hearn and Lori Ira. The seminar was held in St. Joseph’s Hall where a large crowd of freshmen students came to listen to these experienced workers who have demonstrated long-term success with maintaining employment. The freshmen students will soon be seniors and will be spending two days a week going to internships throughout the Capital Region.

The freshmen students learned how interests may change over time when they realize that some careers may not be the right place for their talents. For example, Melissa revealed that she originally was interested in culinary work, but our Internship Coordinator, Bill Lynch suggested that she shadow a childcare worker and as Melissa put it, “Things started to click.”

Abby has worked with two very different animals at her various jobs and internships – cats and horses.

David is at the #10 bus stop at 6:20 in the morning to head over to the Marriott Hotel for his internship. What is unique about David’s employment experience at the Marriott Hotel is that he is the first student who has chosen to work in the front as one of the top bellmen. As a result, he is one of the first friendly faces the hotel guests see as he helps with luggage and any other needs. We always ask the students, “What is it that you would like to do?” Our past students usually want to work in the culinary department but David advocated for serving as a bellman!

Matt actually maintains two jobs during the week and one of them is at Integra.

Taylor has a position that involves packages products to send to customers and says that this is her favorite part of the job along with labeling the boxes.

Bill Lynch facilitated the seminar and explained to the freshmen attendees at the beginning, “These guys have invaluable experience to give you.” We at the College Experience feel this is the case, too!