More than 1,000 tenth and eleventh grade students from high schools in Columbia and Greene Counties attended the 28th Annual Career Day at the Columbia-Greene Community College (CGCC) in Hudson on January 10. In addition, many Questar III BOCES staff members served as panelists in the various career forums.
Students participate in a game show-type career presentation at the 28th Annual Career Day held at CGCC.
Sponsored and coordinated by the Columbia-Greene Counselor’s Association and Columbia Greene Community College, this year’s event featured 125 panelists in 24 different career fields ranging from health care to communications to automotive.
The first event – coordinated by the late Cathie Whitbeck of Questar III, Ginny Ambrose of Cairo Durham, Naomi Weiner of Catskill and Sue Strong of Ichabod Crane – was held in 1986.
According to Strong, who is now a guidance counselor at Questar III’s Columbia-Greene Educational Center, this event allows high school students to explore careers they may be interested in pursuing. Many students also complete a follow up research paper based on what they learned at the event.
The event is successful because of the coordination and planning of the 23 counselors in the component school districts. The counselors meet monthly before the event to ensure a successful Career Day for their students.
The event also gives students a chance to visit a college campus, something many of them have never done before.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for students to gain first-hand knowledge of career exploration,” said Strong. “Columbia-Greene Community College has been very generous in donating their buildings and staff to put on this event.”
During the event, students visited two different career forums of their choice to learn about the various career options available. Panelists from the respective field talked about their day-to-day activities, career path and reasons for choosing the career they did.
Panelists from Questar III included Jim Church, Erin Clary, Ted Hennessy, Lynn Seftner, Ed Hull, Ed Luther, Bill Ebel, Rose Helinski, Peter Desmond, Sue Strong and Graham Tichy.
Students also attended a special general session sponsored Windham Mountain Resort, Questar III and CGCC. With Questar III’s Career Development Specialist Ted Hennessy as the host and Questar III Teaching Assistant Graham Tichy as the musical director, students participated in a game show-type career presentation. The presentation showed students how to balance a “day job” with a musical career, as all the panelists were established musicians from the area.
