Published: 4/24/2022 4:29:10 PM
Modified: 4/24/2022 4:27:45 PM
Social workers, bankers, nurses, aviation experts and a karate instructor were just a few of the speakers who signed up to present and run workshops at Franklin High School’s annual Career Day.
Held Wednesday after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 30 volunteers from the local community came in to speak to groups of 20 students about their jobs. Students were also given two options for off-campus site visits at Benson Auto Company and at Peabody Place retirement community.
“Today things are going really great,” said Carisa Corrow, consultant for Franklin’s Portrait of a Graduate and owner of Educating for Good, who worked to plan Career Day. “I walked the hallways both sessions and it was quiet. That meant to me that kids were engaged and that they were listening to community members.”
In one room, karate instructor Sharyl Geisert had students on their feet and moving in the gym as she demonstrated how she teaches martial arts classes to small children. In another classroom, one student was eager to know if Shelbie Swanson of Franklin Savings Bank had ever dealt with a bank robbery during her time working there (the answer was no). Career Day also featured representatives from manufacturers like Watts and EPTAM Precision.
Franklin High School brought Career Day back this year with the help of funding the school received for its Portrait of a Graduate initiative led by Corrow that focuses on furthering the community’s consensus of what qualities and skills students should develop while at Franklin public schools.
“We’re doing all kinds of fun things this year and playing around with how to do school differently,” Corrow said. “Career Day isn’t necessarily doing school differently, but it’s bringing something back that was here before ... For the first time after a pandemic, I think it’s really, really going well.”