Career Exploration Day

“SO ….what do want to do when you grow up?”  This dreaded question has plagued young people for generations.  The often-used follow-up statement, “You can be anything you want to be,” seems to draw more anxiety than solace for the teen or twenty-something who is just beginning to explore where her professional passions may lie.

The Women at Work Museum, who’s mission is to honor the achievements of women throughout history while encouraging visitors to dream about what is yet possible for women to achieve, planned programs to help young women begin to sort through the options available to them.  On Saturday, September 22, from 11am-2pm, the Museum presented Career Exploration Day in association with the local School-to-Career partnerships.  The purpose of the program was to give high school and college women an opportunity to meet and talk with women who are successful in their chosen field.  “We specifically looked for a varied group of professionals to be represented,” explains Nancy Young, Museum President. 

At least 30 women participated, representing careers as diverse as engineering, medical, dental, legal, education, the trades, culinary, and personal services such as an esthetician, a personal trainer and massage therapist.  Many of these women run their own businesses and have built careers while raising families.  The young women had opportunities to ask questions to the participants and walk away with solid answers from established women in the field which will allow the young women to begin to decide how to proceed with educational choices in order to step into their career path. 

The Career Exploration Day has now become a part of the Young Women to Watch exhibit – from 13 to 30, a new exhibit that displays a wall of professional womens' information with a recording of each woman's interview for that day. Now young women can come into the Museum and listen to each of the professionals talk about their careers in their own words and pickup contact information to follow up with each woman who is in a career that is of interest to her.