As the middle of summer has arrived and is quickly passing by, we begin to think about and look forward to what the future holds. Summer is the perfect time and season to explore and develop new interests. As always, the PCA Student Council strives to create opportunities for our community to grow and develop. This time, we decided to dive deep into an extensive subject that may be intimidating or confusing to the minds of the youth: careers. By inviting 12 professional speakers across a diverse range of careers, we hoped to inspire interest and foster an introduction in our youth to the endless world of careers.
PCA Youth Center held a series of Career Exploration Events over the course of the last few months (May 24th, June 19th, and June 26th, 2021) via Zoom, inviting speakers from all over the country with a wide variety of professions. We were honored to have Lauren Corcoran Emrich (vocal teacher and professional singer), Brad Shiying Si (director of risk management department), Jessica Wang (software engineer), Jennifer Lin (pharmacist), Scott Mao (professor), Yuhui Wang (financial analyst), Nathan Grealish (UX designer), Yan Lin & Ying Ding (biostatistics professors), Natalie David (veterinarian), Shuangshuang Li (UX designer), Dr. Wei Sun (cardiologist) as our guest speakers. Our participants were of all ages, and we had a peak of 103!
Each speaker prepared a 15-20 minute presentation regarding their careers as well as the steps they took to achieve their success. There was a short Q/A session at the end of each speech so that our participants had the opportunity to ask their own questions. Overall, the events were very engaging and there were so many memorable moments! Ms. Lauren Emrich sang a beautiful operetta, bringing her talent to this event and showing her passion for music through the lively piece. Mr. Brad Si spoke of his impressive experiences in the field of risk management while working at some of the top companies in the US, ranging from Morgan Stanley located in the financial district on Wall Street to the well-known BNY Mellon banking company. Ms. Jessica Wang gave very helpful advice on becoming a software engineer through her light-hearted and relatable speech. Ms. Jennifer Lin spoke about her profession as a pharmacist, as well as which majors and medical/health-related requisites would be beneficial to working in a pharmacy. Mr. Scott Mao, who is a material science professor at the University of Pittsburgh, talked about the many job opportunities one can get while majoring in material science, as well as broadening our horizons on this subject. Ms. Yuhui Wang explained the daily life of being a financial analyst and the work she is responsible for to satisfy each client’s needs. 2 UX designers, Mr. Nathan Grealish and Ms. Shuangshuang Li each told us their stories after graduating college with a major in graphic arts and computer science respectively, all the way to their current job as a UX designer. Ms. Yan Lin and Ms. Ying Ding shared their experiences of being biostatistics professors at the University of Pittsburgh and gave us compelling background information on what statistics and other health sciences are. Ms. Natalie David, a veterinarian, shared her story which encompassed the life and death experience one has to go through while being a vet. Healing injured animals could always go both ways, and her inspiring presentation left us all thinking about what survival really means. Finally, through this event, we got to see a “day in the life” of a cardiologist (Dr. Wei Sun), and how he, among millions of other doctors, saves people’s lives every day by directly witnessing humanity at its best and worst and dedicating their own life to the study of medicine and healing.
The 3 Days were recorded, and are uploaded on YouTube through our PCA channel. Links are attached here:
Thank you to the student council (Yi-Fei, Kevin, Chennie, Selena, Hannah, Iris, Edward, Aaron, Sophia, and Matt), the counselors (Crystal, Amy, and Jefferson), and the parents
for making this event come true. Thank you to our wonderful guest speakers for giving such inspirational speeches and sharing your stories with us. We highly appreciate your hard work and dedication to this event, and we were so honored to have you. PCA would also like to express our thanks to all our participants. We hope you enjoyed this series of career exploration events! The council is already preparing for our next event, so please stay tuned and look forward to it!
Comentários