Catholic Schools Week is filled with many activities from the old traditions such as crazy hat day and grade school colors day to the new collection of traditions such as this year’s language Masses. But every Friday of Catholic Schools Week we end it here at Elder with career day. Alumni of Elder show up to share their wealth of knowledge to aspiring Panthers.

Some students just take it as an hour or so of free time but some take advantage of the opportunity to network with people that could affect their future. Panthers love giving back and these alumni will help out a fellow Elder grad to guide them on a career path.

Giving back to the Elder community is a part of what alumni do. They set a prime example for students so that we can strive to be in their positions.

One teacher in particular, Mr. Listerman, wants his students to take advantage of this opportunity. He, being the business teacher that he is, wants his students to make the most of their time. He gives an assignment so that students will talk to the alumni that are giving up their time to benefit us.

Almost every industry is represented from teaching to automotive, priesthood and manufacturing; Career Day can satisfy anybody’s aspirations. A few fresh faces come every year put for the most part there are annual members of the Career Day event.

I talked to Joe Bianco who is a mortgage lender and he said, “I Love helping people and that is one of the best parts of my job.” He later stated how lenders often get a bad reputation for being like “sharks” but he likes to help his customers and be a quality worker. From my conversation with him I can tell he is representing the Elder community in a great way.

This conversation got me thinking about how Career Day displays just a small amount of the success that Elder has produced. It shows how well we are prepared by going to Elder.

For example, graphic designer Drew Vogt designed the scheme for Gillette’s recent packaging. Career Day shows Elder students that we may be unsure of what we want to do and these alumni show how well we will be prepared for whatever we go into.

John Albers, who is an operations and supply chain manager, told me that Elder really prepares us to be very team oriented. What he means by this is that we know what to sacrifice for the team to succeed which makes us better workers.

Career Day is always a great day for juniors and seniors. We get the opportunity to get a better grasp on what we want to do in college and beyond. It is just another way that Elder is preparing us for success.