This article prepared from a report by Roma Gandhi, grade 9.

The business and entrepreneurship department’s CareerConnect program hosted a mentorship banquet in early April, offering rising sophomores and juniors the opportunity to work with a mentor in their field of interest.  

This year, 19 students were paired with mentors. During the banquet, each mentor offered advice, and discussed their field of work and their professional journey with their mentee. As part of a mentee/mentor activity, each mentee wrote three of his or her goals on a mug and presented it to his or her mentor, to help mentors gain a better understanding of how they can best help their mentees.

Students gained a lot of invaluable knowledge from their mentors in fields such as medicine, business, computer science, engineering and law. Enya Lu, grade 10, described her experience as “a really fun opportunity where I was able to learn a lot and connect with many different people.”

Mentors included Dr. Jerald Wisdom, an ophthalmologist at Kaiser Permanente; Bill Stevenson, a software engineer at Apple; Fabio Marino, an intellectual property lawyer at  McDermott Will & Emery; and Archana Baldwa, Senior Finance Manager at Juniper Networks.

Students will continue to meet with their mentors outside of school in the upcoming months and may have the opportunity to visit them at their workplace.

Overall, the CareerConnect Mentorship Banquet was an exciting opportunity for students to gain advice, inspiration and mentorship from an industry professional in their field of interest!