Tattoo Artist, Voice Actress And Others Answer Student Questions On Career Day In Fairfax

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — One hundred working professionals from a variety of fields showed up at Katherine Johnson Middle School on Thursday morning to take part in Career Day.

When Tammara Silipigni came to the Fairfax City school four years ago as its new principal, she envisioned Career Day to be an opportunity for students to interact with working adults and ask them questions about their jobs.

"I think it's helpful for kids to see that their passion can turn into something that brings them fulfillment in their career," she said.

Johnson seventh- and eighth-graders signed up to attend three sessions on Thursday morning when they could hear presentations by the speakers and ask questions.

Speakers included a CNN reporter, an NFL scout, a voice actress, a Google program manager, a U.S. Senate director, and a math engineer, as well as Fairfax City firefighters, police officers, and even Mayor David Meyer.

"We had lots of professionals like lawyers and health science career clusters," Silipigni said. "We have a lot of people from the arts. That was really important to us too."

Aimee D. Wells, senior archaeologist with the Fairfax County Park Authority, has participated in career days at other schools. This was her first time participating in Career Day at Johnson, where her twin daughters are seventh-graders.

"It was wonderful," she said. "It was really nice to meet all of the students. They were super-engaged and really passionate about learning about Fairfax County history."

For the Wells, her career day experience wasn't just about informing students about her job, she learned something as well.

"What I learned most today was that these students, they have such a broad breadth of knowledge that I could barely keep up," she said. "They're learning a lot more than I did."

Thursday was the third time Camden Eppert, who is an assistant wrestling coach at George Mason University, had participated in Career Cay at Johnson. As a former student athlete at Purdue University, Eppert was able to provide a perspective about that experience. He also brought some members of his team to share the challenges of being a student athlete.

"Even though they don't have a career necessarily, but being a student athlete obviously can be a taxing job for them," he said. "So, they can come and experience that and share questions."

Being a tattoo artist might not seem like a career that most people would consider. But for Emmanuel Chavez Galicia, who works out of the Dixer Studio on Main Street in Fairfax City, most of the students he met Thursday asked him whether it was possible to have a career in art.

"Like everybody else, they're concerned about their financial future more than anything else, so I try to put that out there first," he said. "It seemed like everybody was concerned about whether that can actually be something they actually can do."

Chavez Galicia is not only a master tattoo artist, he also paints murals, does screen printing and manufactures tattoo machines. He learned all of these skills himself.

"We have a lot of kids who are interested in the arts and technology," Silipigni said, adding that it was important to include STEM careers to emulate the school's namesake, pioneering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson.

"I really think it's important too to get people back into the classrooms to see kids and interact with kids," she said.

Also see ...

Confederate Name Replaced With NASA Pioneer's At Fairfax School