On Wednesday, March 6, St. Mark's hosted its sixth annual Career Day. The event, involving both on- and- off-campus experiences, was a tremendous success. More than 50 adults—alumni, past and present parents, and friends of St. Mark's—either visited campus to lead workshops and presentations or hosted St. Markers at their places of work.

• Students in Forms III and IV remained on campus for opportunities to learn about different careers and job skills from both traditional and non-traditional career professionals. This year, on-campus presentations and workshops included experts in business and entrepreneurship, technology, marketing and communication, cyberspace operations/intelligence collecting, website development, finance, photography, investment banking, startups, life design, branding and advertising, online journalism, voice over work, the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, various fields of medicine and health care ((cardiology, pediatrics, pediatric brain cancer, histology, oncology, veterinary medicine, acupuncture, and more), and oyster farming. Other workshops included "Workers of the Future," "Diversity in the Workplace," and "How to Survive After Graduation."

Off-campus job-shadowing allowed some V and VI Formers to gain first-hand knowledge about being a professional in a variety of industries and fields. Off-campus job-shadowing opportunities this year involved marketing, technology, sports, education, architecture, industry, science, printing, the law, hospitality, politics, investment banking, sales, engineering, medicine, and much more!

• Job shadowing opportunities took place at ADK Group, Akamai Technologies, Alpha Youth Sports Angier Elementary School in Newton, ARC/Architectural Resources, Bose Corporation, Boston Scientific, Cimpress, Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Dudley Elementary School, Floral Street School in Shrewsbury, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Hawthorn Medical Associates, iCounsel, Johnson & Johnson/DePuy Synthes, Marriott International, Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts State House, MathWorks, MFS Investment Management, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, The Official Red Sox Team Store, Sanofi Genzyme, TJX, and the U.S. District Court in Boston.

Alumni on-campus were Jessica Abreu '08 (marketing manager at Hometown Health), Ibrahim Ayub '10 (management consultant and specialist in life design), Jenna Vos '07 (campaign manager for Revenue River), John Clapp '10 (farm manager at Glidden Point Oyster Farms), Jim Cotter '83 (managing director at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey), Lindsey Avery Fitzsimons '06 (instructor of gross anatomy and histology at UMaine/University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine), Meg Giblin '12 (clinical research coordinator in pediatric radiation oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital), Elaine Harvey '06 (assistant director for development and communications at Wellesley College), Luke Chiasson '15 (athletics communications assistant at Wellesley College), Stephen Hodi '84 (director of the melanoma center for immune-oncology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute), Roger Hunt '04 (founder of Found Something and partner at Quantum Venture Partners), Jessie Mulvey '13 (customer success manager at Forrester Research), Victoria Shea '13 (operations manager at Crowd Lending Inc), Jim Tessmer '82 (vice president at Brown Brothers Harriman), Ralph Vogel '86 (managing director, Coppermine Capital), Alex Ward '08 (Pentagon reporter at Vox), and Maura Webster '95 (Founder, CEO, and chief strategist, LillaBlu Strategies LLC).

• Off-campus alumni facilitators included Heather McCormack '06 (ADK marketing director), Katrina Schmitt '10 (technology educator), Eric Anderson '92 (director of senior fellowship and Voices in Leadership series at Harvard School of Public Health), Joao De Oliveiro '05 (Johnson & Johnson), and Katie Fink '00 (VP, Digital Experience).

Past and current parents participating, both on and off campus, were Lawrence Bloch (president, Infinity Pharmaceuticals), Peter Butterfield (general counsel and chief compliance officer at Flywire), Pam Chiasson (owner, Restorative Touch Massage Studio), Jim Cotter '83, Catherine Hunter Gould (voice-over artist, Hunter Voice), John Griffin (associate professor at the Naval War College), Deb Halstead (acupuncturist at Wellsprings Integrative Health), Sharon Weil Hornstein (photographer and owner, Sand Dollar Images), Dr. Helene Keyzer (retired pediatrician), Theo Meyer (director of heart failure wellness at UMass Memorial Medical Center), Michael Mosse (managing director, Risk Strategies), Brian Mulcahy (category director of wellness at Bose Corporation), Richard Ramirez (strategy and co-COO at Working Nation), John LaMalva (founder, Alpha Youth Sports), Alfred Von Campe (software and tools engineer and Linux administrator, Bose Corporation), Troy Lengel (group marketing director at Boston Scientific), Don LeBlanc (EVP and president at Vistaprint/Cimpress Waltham), Michael Pellini (principal and general counsel at iCounsel), David Giblin (VP Marriott International), Jason Qu (cardiac anesthesiologist at Mass General), Shannoin Tran (MathWorks), Michael Dawson (MFS Investment), Mark Winters (executive managing director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, Anita D'Angelo (co-owner The Official Red Sox Team store), and Amy Frederick (scientist at Genzyme).

A number of other professionals, friends of the School, also took part in providing Career Day opportunities for St. Markers. Off-campus: Anupria Verma (senior quality assurance engineer at Akamai Technologies), Robert Nixon MD (general surgeon at Hawthorn Medical Associates, Erica Greenberg MD (director of pediatric psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital), Elizabeth Walk (legislative e aid e (for Rep. Carolyn Dykema at Massachusetts State House), and Allison Burroughs (Judge, U.S. District Court of Massachusetts) all hosted students off-campus. On campus were Dani Cimino (Crossroads Mobile Vet), Christa Preston (executive director and founder of Embrace Kulture), and Melissa Roiter (owner, Yummy Mummy Bakery).

After lunch, interested St. Markers interacted and conversed directly with various presenters and specialists at stations throughout the Center. Students responded positively to the Career Day opportunities.

On campus, St. Markers were actively involved and engaged. Logan Matthews '22 found the BioTech workshop "Fascinating;" especially "learning how you can use a mouse genome to better understand the human genome." Nashua Poreda '22 like Diversity in the Workplace. "We had great conversations," she said. "It was very interactive and pretty interesting."

Eduaniel Reinoso, a IV Former from Hartford, CT, found The Art of the Voice Over "most interesting." He also noted that "I learned a lot from the Workers of the Future workshop. It was eye-opening and intense."

Off-campus, Matt Hart, a VI Former from New Hampshire, spent his day behind the scenes at the Official Red Sox Team Store. "My experience was amazing," he said. "I was able to meet with their inventory managers to understand the economics behind each purchase. Seeing them use past data to predict how much apparel they will need in each size and when they believe they will sell it by was fascinating. I worked at a startup company over the summer and being at Fenway for Career Day bettered my understanding of how large companies use near identical marketing strategies as smaller ones."

Those St. Markers visiting the Bose Corporation (see related story on SM website) also were pleased with what they saw and learned. "I enjoyed being able to see not just the developmental process, but also their prototypes and ideas for the future," said CJ Schumaker '19. Nathan Laudani '19 added: "It was super-interesting to see how products advance through different stages of development."

"I enjoyed exploring the various careers Bose had to offer," said Steven Sinchi '19. "I came in unsure of what engineering disciplines I was most interested in, but I left with a sense of curiosity toward mechanical and/or acoustics engineering. I made some great connections today with professionals who were not only knowledgeable, but kind as well."

"It was incredible to converse with such intelligent people and to witness the behind-the-scenes actions of so many different job roles within the company," added Gunnar Vachris '19. "The Bose employees gave great advice, not only in pursuing a Bose-related career, but any career."

Other students found that time spent at hospitals, businesses, and the courts were eye-opening and enlightening.

Many St. Mark's Career Day hosts and presenters do offer internships for interested students.

As great as the experiences are for the students, this day is as equally enriching for the connecting, reconnecting, and sharing among all of our volunteers. Many of the SM Career Day hosts and presenters offer special mentoring and/or Internships for students, either for summer programs or for the new Lion Term experience. The success of Career Day certainly depends on alumni and parent volunteers who host students off campus in their places of work or participate on career panels for students on campus, but those who cannot make it to Career Day can also offer an internship or be a mentor.

Fifth and Sixth Formers travel to New York City and the Greater Boston area, participating in job shadow experiences to gain first-hand knowledge about being a professional in a variety of industries such as, Consulting, Finance, Business Management, Architecture, Healthcare, Public Relations, and Engineering. Third and Fourth Formers remain on campus to learn about different careers and job skills such as effective resume writing, appropriate use of social media, and interviewing techniques from traditional and non-traditional career professionals.

James Bartlett is both an alumnus (SM Class of 1985) and a St. Mark's parent (SM Classes of 2017 and 2018), and he has been involved in every St. Mark's Career Day to date. Bartlett is the President of L.S. Power Equity Advisors, specializing in renewable infrastructure investments, and he has participated both on-campus as a Career Day presenter and off-campus as a job-shadow host.

"When they first told me about Career Day, I thought it was a great idea," said Bartlett recently. "I thought the School was doing something very smart." Bartlett found it a challenge at first. "I never was good at public speaking, and I had to figure out how to connect with students," he recalled. "But it was good getting out of my comfort zone. I thought about those teachers and mentors that I have had in my life, and the concept of connecting, of teaching, was interesting to me. After all, I want to be a teacher to my own kids."

Jim Bartlett was on campus that first year, in 2013, and he has been once again since. "Going into the classroom, I had to find a way to relate to them, to open their eyes," he said. "I So I told them 'you can't possibly know what you want to do with your lives, and if you think you do, you're stifling yourself." Circumstances, he noted, can change. "I wanted them to be able to be flexible, but also to identify their passion. I encouraged them to recognize that 'Aha!' moment, like fireflies in a jar, and then to figure out what to do with it."

Bartlett has also twice hosted Fifth and Sixth Formers at his New York office. "I found the best way was to challenge them," he said. He would introduce them to the idea of renewable infrastructure investment, then pose a one-page problem—a deal involving a power plant, for example—and then leave them for 45 minutes or so to hash it out in a group session. "It gives them some perspective," continued Bartlett, "and also gives them an opportunity to meet the actual people doing the work."

Once again, the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning put on a successful Career Day, providing St. Markers with dynamic and tangible experiences that facilitate connections between their academic pursuits and potential professional endeavors in the future. More than 40 alumni, close to twenty parents past and present, and a dozen special guests made the 2016-17 St. Mark's Career Day a very special occasion for the School community.

This was the fourth annual SM Career Day, sponsored by St. Mark's Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning along with the School's Advancement Office.

• Fifth and Sixth Formers were off campus, visiting various businesses and organizations, shadowing mentors there. A number of SM alumni were off-campus hosts, including John Small '76 (Managing Director at Amherst –Pierpont Securities in New York City), Scott Young '85 (Assistant Men's Ice Hockey Coach at Boston University), Eric Andersen '92 (Harvard Institute of Politics), Julia McGovern '08 and Courtney Flynn '09 (Kel & Partners Public Relations in Boston), Lindy McDonough '04 (Creative Director at Lotuff Leather in Providence), David Stack '75 (Partner at McLaughlin & Stern law firm in New York City), Shelby McBride '08 (Senior Account Executive at Ogilvy Public Relations in New York City), Jordon Nardino '96 (Co-Executive Producer for the ABC TV series Quantico), Julia King '05 (Head Field Hockey Coach, Wellesley College), and Arlen Galloway '02 (Head Men's Basketball Coach at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston).

• Parents and grandparents past and present also hosted Fifth and Sixth Formers. In addition to alumni parents Young and Stack, St. Markers shadowed Dr. Bill Shakespeare (Vice President, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals in Boston), Bob Duffy (Managing Director, Berkeley Research Group in Boston), Dr. Linda Bulich (Boston Children's Hospital), Natalie Williams (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), John Drohan (President, Main Effort Financial in Holliston), Drs. Stephanie Moore and Jason Qu (Massachusetts General Hospital), Michael Mosse (Mosse & Mosse Associates in Lynnfield), Mark Winters (Newmark Grubb Knight Frank in Boston), Richard Flathers (Protonex Technology in Southborough), Damien Leigh (VP at Staples in Framingham), and Anita D'Angelo (co-owner, Twins Enterprise Inc in Boston).

• Other Job Shadow hosts were Michael Carr (Phys Ed, Health & Wellness teacher at Angier Elementary School in Waban), Madeline Hale (Architectural Resources Cambridge), Chase Estes (Senior Account Executive at Google), Dr. Robert Nixon (Hawthorn Medical Associates in Dartmouth), Dr. Erica Greenberg (Psychiatrist at Mass General), Laura Spangenburg (Grade 4 teacher, Shrewsbury Public Schools), Ryan Amari (Senior Software Engineer at Smarter Travel Media/Trip Advisor in Boston), and Olivia Straw (Center for Cancer Care at Winchester Hospital).

• Third and Fourth Formers had an on-campus Career Day experience. It began in the Putnam Family Arts Center's Class of 1945 Hall, where David Gardner '84 was the keynote speaker. Gardner is the "Co-Founder & Chief Rule Breaker" of The Motley Fool, an innovative multimedia financial-services company that provides financial solutions for investors through various stock, investing, and personal finance services. He gave an insightful and entertaining address, in which he described how he got his first job, how he quit his first job, and the challenging adventure of starting one's own business. He then shared four pieces of advice for determining a career path:1) Determine what is important to you (is it Creativity? Service? Location? Money?); 2) Know how to play the game (do research and tailor your resume to the organization you are applying to); 3) Brush up your Shakespeare (a—be careful in your use of Social Media and clean up your public image, b—write well); and 4) Lead a more interesting life (don't be dull).

Following the opening presentation, students attended a series of workshops/panels, covering a wide range of possible careers.

Alumni on-campus presenters were Dylan Akers '10 (Banner Seventeen LLC—The Boston Celtics), Dr. Mark Albion '69 (Net Impact—a nonprofit membership organization for students and professionals interested in using business skills in support of various social and environmental causes), Jayant Bhambhani '08 (Software Engineer at Curata), Jennifer Borggaard '87 (Senior VP, Affiliated Managers Group), Edward Connolly '93 (Senior VP at Jones Lang LaSalle investments), Rory P. Connor '89 (Managing Partner, Winkleman & Winkleman investments), Lucy Grogan '05 (VP and Gallery Director, Grogan & Company –fine arts auctioneers), Elaine Harvey '06 (Assistant Director of Development & Communications, Wellesley College), Roger Hunt '04 (Executive Recruiter, CyberCoders), Jack Ijams '75 (Program Manager, 3M Health Information Systems), Trey Kellett '94 (Managing Director, Offset Capital Group), William Knowlton '65 (Lt. Colonel [ret] US Army and National Defense University), Chris Leist '10 (Rising Tide Interactive political advertising), David Markowitz '88 (Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, US Army), Shaun McGovern '10 (Clinton Health Access Initiative), Lanse Robb '80 (Principal, LandVest Inc real estate), George Smith '70 (Director, US Treasury Department), Dennis Spinney '73 (Pastor, Valley Bible Fellowship Church), Jim Tessmer '82 (Senior Vice President, State Street Global Services), Brian Thompson '59 (Professor of French Emeritus, UMass Boston, EVkids), Ralph Vogel '86 (Managing Director, Coppermine Capital), Alex Ward ''08 (Associate Director, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, Atlantic Council), Lia Wayman '07 (Co-Founder & CEO, The Room Ring), and Maura Navin Webster '95 (Founder, CEO, and Chief Strategist—LillaBlu Strategies LLC).

Parents and grandparents past and present presenting workshops were alumni parents Albion, Ijams, and Robb, along with Dr. Montgomery C. Brower (Forensic Psychiatrist), Megan Hyland (Stewardship Manager, St. Mark's Advancement Office), Alexander Krapf (President, Codemesh Inc), Scott Ladner (COO, KIT Industries), Dr. Rosanna LaMalva (Optometrist, EyeBar Boston), and Dr. Betina Shakespeare (Urgent Care Physician, Southborough Medical Group).

Other presenters were Dr. Ruby Bartolome (Floating Hospital for Children, Tufts), Tara Camp (professional figure skater, Disney on Ice), Dr. Dani Cimino (Veterinarian & Owner, Crossroads Mobile Vet), Sable Lomax (Founder, Real Brown Girls LLC), Brett Maloley (CEO, Ladder—a mobile platform that connects people with local health and wellness professionals), Hayley Moore (General Manager, Boston Pride, National Women's Hockey League), Melissa Roiter (Owner, Yummy Mummy Bakery), and faculty members Chris Young and Brian Geraghty.

After a morning of career-oriented sessions, there followed a number of special afternoon workshops, Applying to a Service Academy, Sell Me This Pen! — The Art of the Sales Pitch, Summer Job Interview Skills & Practice, How Do You Pick Your College Major?, Success Tips for Student Grant Application, Experience Based Product Design, Mini Branding and Social Media, Coaching Youth Sports, Insights from St. Mark's Young Alumni, Law & Order: TV vs. Real Life, Sports in College and Beyond, Why Would I Think of Working for the US Government?, How to Stay Fit and Healthy, and What is a Non-Profit?