The Alumni Career Fair and networking lunch on Thursday, December 5th provided current MAMS juniors with the unique opportunity to hear the stories of MAMS alumni and get a glimpse into what happens post-MAMS. With careers ranging from environmental engineering to education, investing, journalism, and entrepreneurship, MAMS students were exposed to various possible paths for them and learned how they got there.

This event, in this format, was a first. It built upon Ms. Taricco’s annual CS Education Week Alumni Event, but expanded the scope of careers to be non-computer science specific. The idea was a product of Mrs. Taricco’s experience running the original event, brainstorming, and further planning from Mrs. Ludes, Mrs. Post, and former MAMS director, Mr. Barney.

Mrs. Ludes stated that they initially began the planning process by polling alumni to gauge their availability and interest in sharing their stories, either in-person or over Zoom. They received sixteen responses. For CS Education Week, each student typically hears from each presenter, but given the greater interest in presenting, this was not possible. Mrs. Post did much of the choreography and room placement that determined how presenters were grouped together. The goal was to create a schedule that was productive and meaningful to each student.

That morning, MAMS faced heavy snowfall and instated a two-hour delay. Despite the unexpected forecast and unideal road conditions, all presenters and nearly 100% of the student class were in attendance. Mrs. Ludes shared that the only disappointing part of the day was not being able to see every presenter. Her favorite parts, however, were seeing the alumni reconnect and share old memories from their time at MAMS and “seeing how attentive [the students] were and asking great questions. In some cases when it was a real connection to something that a student was interested in seeing, their eyes [got] really wide and their body language, like gleaming. That was fantastic”.

Although this event may not return in this exact format –it’s likely to return as a day in CS Education Week planned by Mrs. Taricco–it nonetheless provided students with a chance to gain inspiration and learn from the lives of current MAMS alumni.

Mrs. Ludes closed our interview by expressing her gratitude for the MAMS alumni that cleared their schedules for us, and described it as the MAMS spirit of seeking to give back and provide for their community. Mrs. Ludes hopes that when the time comes, we will choose to continue this tradition of giving back, and revisit MAMS as alumni to share our future stories.