District 219 held a ‘Kickstart to Career Pathways and College’ event to inform students about potential career pathways on Tuesday, Oct. 16. Professionals from seven different career pathways (manufacturing, engineering, technology and trades, human and public services, health sciences and technology, agriculture, food and natural resources, arts and communication, finance and business services and information technology) were brought in to discuss what each career may entail for students.

The night consisted of two 45 minute sessions in which students were given the choice to decide which sessions they should attend to best fit their career interests. Among these sessions were health and science, performing arts and computer science. One of the subcategories to the human and public services sector was law/legal where assistant attorney general Sharon Eiseman and office of the Cook County public defender Karen Dimond made the decision to speak.

“There are seven groupings that the state of Illinois has identified as potential career paths and they are encouraging high schools to introduce these programs here. We [the Illinois State Bar Association] received a phone call from the high school because they know that the state bar knows lots of attorneys. Since I’m on the Bar Association’s law-related education for the public committee, I was asked to come,” said Eiseman.

Many of the professionals felt inclined to inform the future generation about their industry. Ph.D. Associate Professor of Computer Science at Loyola University Ronald Greenberg is concerned about the decreasing computer science enrollment in universities.

“I’ve been involved in outreach for a while because there’s been a whole historical trend like around the year 2000 with like the big internet boom … there was a little bit of an economic downturn, and people started to think that computer science wasn’t the easy buck they thought it was, and enrollments in computer science programs went down in universities. I knew from everything that I was reading that in the long term this is misguided and that there would be lots of opportunities in computing. I wanted to get out and make people aware that they should study computer science as there are good opportunities,” said Greenberg.

Eiseman ultimately decided to speak at this event to inform students on how they can access the justice system and career pathway.

“I think a lot of lawyers care about helping the public understand law, what their rights are, and also connecting with young people to make sure that they understand the whole justice system and the process by which people can access justice and even figure out what’s wrong with the system and try to make it better. I think I and a lot of my colleagues are very committed to taking advantage of any opportunity to come and talk to young people,” said Eiseman.

The Assistant Director of External Programs at Northwestern Kathleen Lee came to speak to the youth about journalism. She was excited at the opportunity to spread awareness of the field.

“I actually know one of the organizers through rotary club,” Lee said. “I guess I just really like talking to future journalists and talking about this field to people. I’m always excited to do that.”

Charlie Conkle, a junior, attended these talks to try and get some direction in what he’s going to do in the future.

“I found that people speaking about these careers were very knowledgeable and gave a lot of helpful pointers. I was just disappointed that we only got to explore two different careers in one night. I would have preferred being able to explore more possible options for my future since only seeing two isn’t going to help decide much of what I’m going to end up doing,” Conkle said.

All of the professionals offered advice to the students in taking a hold of their futures. They hoped to inspire the students and instill the belief that their career pathways are possible. Eiseman and others emphasized the importance of believing in oneself in achieving goals and hoped that their presentations inspired the next generation of professionals.

“Believe in yourself and your ability to make what you want to happen. It’s simple, but it’s not just about law, it’s about anything you strive for, any goal you set for yourself. Believe that you can do it, be bold, and ask for help- it’s not a weakness,” Eiseman said.