In the first week of February 2025, Oakmont hosted its first-ever Career Day. This half-day workshop invited close to 40 area employees/professionals to share their job descriptions and stories of their journeys – many were Oakmont grads. It was full of inspiring information for Oakmont’s seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen who aspire to be successful after graduation.
Upon arrival, students received a “Career Day Scavenger Hunt” worksheet to guide them in the direction of each student’s interests. The Scavenger Hunt included areas to jot down information for each session as well as the interactive panel, the main event of the day.
After homeroom, all Oakmont students gathered for attendance and instructions about the day’s schedule. This schedule was based on each student’s interest based on a previous survey. Students were able to attend three different speaker-led workshops as well the panel discussion.
Half of the school was assigned to 25-minute workshops while the other half was assigned to the panel discussion.
The panel, known as the day’s main event, consisted of four exceptionally successful individuals: Wendy Smolinsky, who works in a global business administration; P. Greg Smith, a General active in the Boston Marathon Bombing; Steph Latinen, the Westminster Town Advisor, and Timothy Shea, Deputy Chief for the Deven’s Fire Department.
They all answered questions from our superintendent, Dr. Todd Stewart. These questions embraced the idea of staying open to all the things that come our way because the majority of these successful people never even pictured doing what they are doing now.
During an interview, Oakmont’s Vice Principal and Career Day Adviser, Mr. Brian Cote, talked about the process of what it took to make this event happen. He spoke about the scheduling, meetings, and important surveys sent throughout the district and faculty.
Cote also clarified that leaving the students to remember some key components was his biggest goal.
“You’re always gonna have ups and downs, but you gotta be resilient. That’s one thing I hope was heard loud and clear… All of these people who spoke may have not started in that direction. That’s really hard work and curiosity.”
Chase Curtis, a senior at Oakmont Regional High School, believed Career Day was well worth it. “It was very informative, made me think about the future more than I did before, and opened up more options for me.”
Curtis enjoyed the automotive workshop, where he learned about the salary of the work and how profitable it is to be a mechanic. He was surprised to hear there is a demand for mechanics.
Junior Class President Brian Sanjong, who is also on the student council and fundraising for the Junior Prom, attended an informational BioTech seminar and was certainly impressed. He said, ”I liked how we got advice from the people in the field [that] they were teaching us about.”
Adam Benhar, a sophomore, enjoyed Career Day as well. “Career day was good because it showed me how many careers there are to pursue,” he said.
Freshmen Troy Campanale gave an idea of what the day was like from his perspective. “I liked Career Day because there were a lot of successful people in different jobs that came from Oakmont, and they shared their pathways.”
Oakmont’s first Career Day was a major stepping stone for the students and faculty, as a family we discovered that so much success truly has risen from this area.
In all, Cote felt that this day was a success, and hopefully a seed planted for the future of Oakmont. He hopes that his students graduate not only with a diploma but with unlimited possibilities and the intangibles meant to elevate this district to higher levels of success.
“I think it went off as good as I hoped and maybe even better. I just hope that students left Career Day thinking differently about that [their pathway to success].”
Mr. Cote couldn’t have done this without the support of the cohort of teachers (Rena Payne, Sheena Swanson, Paul Bradley, Erin Bergin, Amanda deMauro, and Samuel Parker) to assist with logistics and planning.
