Annual Career Day helps 'plant the seeds' for the future

Date: 6/15/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW When were you first asked "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I wasn't asked that until my senior year of high school," Dr. Edward Costa, superintendent of schools, said. "It's all about that first question with kids - what do you want to do?"

That's why Birchland Park Middle School just hosted its 11th annual Eighth Grade Career Day, on June 10. More than three dozen presenters from a variety of careers gave 25 minute presentations to small groups of soon-to-be freshmen over the course of the morning, which was bookended by keynote speaker Sgt. Mark Ecker in the beginning and a hot dog barbecue at the end.

"We always start with a capstone speaker, someone who is a graduate of Birchland Park and the high school," Costa explained. "It was great to see Sgt. Ecker."

One featured career area was in the Connecticut Department of Corrections. Officers Sam Ducharme and Cathy Lemay explained that their jobs are to make sure prisoners' sentences are completed safely. Ducharme noted that prisons are small communities, and each community needs employees in every basic service, from food preparers and teachers to physicians and tradesmen. He and Lemay are K9 officers, and they demonstrated the skills their dogs have.

While many dogs are trained in narcotics detection, K9 Rihanna is trained to detect cell phones.

"I didn't aspire to be a corrections officer, but I love what I do," Lemay told a group.

Student Ben Demers, who is interested in engineering, said he thought the corrections officers' presentation was interesting. "I liked learning how they trained the dogs," he said.

Teralyn Rizzuto of the Zoo in Forest Park also works with animals, but in a completely different way. She brought in Flower, a brown and white skunk, and talked about her work as a zoo educator.

Rizzuto first went to college to major in wildlife management, but when that didn't lead to a career she wanted, she went back for education. She now travels around with the Zoo on the Go, teaching people about animals, their special adaptations, habitats, behavior, diets and their status in the wild.

"I get bit everyday," Rizzuto laughed. "It's part of the job working with animals."

There are risks in every career field, from physical to financial. Edward Zemba, with Robert Charles Photography, showcased one of his businesses $10,000 cameras for students.

"Photography is changing rapidly," Zemba noted. "Cameras may not even look like 'cameras' in 10 years."

He talked about the advances being made in the field of photography every day, and he listed with students the different areas photographers can work in, from special events and sports to portraits and landscapes.

"I like taking pictures. I really like when they come out nice," student Connor Coughlin, who expressed an interest in becoming a professional photographer, said. "I'm a little more into the creative side of it. I don't like planned photos."

Zemba told Coughlin that his studio offers internships to students every year.

"Once the kids come to the high school, we have the Career Center to help them get extern- and internships," Costa stated. "[Career Day] was supposed to get them talking, wondering, discovering ... it plants the seeds."