West Essex Hosts Career Day

More than 62 presenters representing a range of professions from doctors to engineers to public safety spoke to the 1,029 students at on Career Day, April 18.

Students got the chance to select the careers they were most interested in and then spend three 35-minute periods listening to professionals talk about their jobs, the education needed to pursue their careers and what they do on a daily basis.

“I think Career Day was really interesting,” said Athena Marousis of Fairfield, a freshman. “I learned a lot about careers and the misconceptions that go with them.”

Athena said she would like to be a teacher and enjoyed listening to presentations from a college professor and a high school guidance counselor.

Physical therapist David Grancagnolo told students in one of his sessions that he finds his job “very gratifying.” “It gives me such a feeling of accomplishment” when he helps his patients feel better. “Every patient is totally different. Every single day is a new experience.”

Joseph Lipoma, a sophomore from Fairfield, learned how difficult it is to be a firefighter when Nutley Fire Chief Paul Cafone and Nutley firefighter Anthony Santoro dressed Joseph up in full firefighter gear. Joseph, whose father is a firefighter in Belleville, smiled through the helmet as the chief told students “every time you go into a fire, this is something you have to put on.”

Joseph said he had no idea how heavy the gear would be—60 to 80 pounds—and how difficult his father’s job is. Joseph, who also attended a presentation for a personal trainer and another for finance, said he is still unsure which career he wants to pursue. “Career Day gave me some ideas of different careers,” he said.

Broadcast journalist Ian Eagle told students how he started out working seven days a week to get where he is today. “It was physically draining,” said Eagle, who has been a broadcaster for the Nets for 18 years, a broadcaster for the NCAA tournament for 15 years and a CBS NFL broadcaster for 15 years. “I spend 30 hours per week dedicated to preparing for an NFL game, not including time spent with the coaches and the players.”

Eagle, who graduated from Syracuse University, told students how he began his career as a student by announcing Syracuse games on WAER, a student-run radio station. Following his graduation, he began working for WFAN as a producer and got his own show in 1992 “Bagels and Baseball” and in 1993 did the pregame show for the station for the Jets. In 1997, WFAN made him the play-by-play announcer for Jets games.

Allergist Dr. David Fost encouraged students “to do what you love doing.” In one session, he talked to students about steroids and their use to treat patients with asthma. He also recounted an experience working as a medical resident in England when he saved a dying boy whose body was not producing natural steroids and brought the boy back with an injection of hydrocortisone. "His color came back in 20 seconds,” Dr. Fost said. “When you are sick, your body is stressed and you need to produce steroids,” he explained.

Down the hall, Sharlene Hall, a sales vice president with the DMC Corporation, showed students different products she sells and also told them how different sales is today than it was years ago. “There is a lot of relationship building, customer building,” she said. ‘You need to feel confident in what you are selling.”

Students also learned about mobile marketing from Jon Del Russo who spoke to them about search engine optimization and search engine marketing. “Google is taking over the world,” he said, noting that every time a person puts in a query, Google learns more and more about you. 

Guidance Counselor Linda Grancagnolo, the day’s organizer, said she was pleased at how well the day went and the positive response from so many presenters who asked if they could return next year. Many of the students told her how inspired they were from the event, she said.