Press Release

Red Bank Rotary Club Carries On Tradition of Mentoring RBR Students in Career Choices

For over twenty years the Red Bank Rotary Club members have made a springtime pilgrimage to Red Bank Regional High School (RBR).

 

 

For over twenty years the Red Bank Rotary Club members have made a springtime pilgrimage to Red Bank Regional High School (RBR). Once there, they report to the school's Guidance Office and pick up students who have expressed interest in their fields and have agreed to job shadow them for the morning. This year, seventeen professionals hosted nearly 30 RBR sophomores at their places of business located throughout the greater Red Bank area. Their fields ranged from automobile sales, investments, banking, accounting, real estate, consulting, public relations, medicine, education, law enforcement and the funeral industry. The morning concluded with a luncheon at the Oyster Point Hotel hosted by the Rotary Club.

Long-time Rotarian and Accountant Horton Hickerson comments, "This is something the Rotary Club has been doing well before I came, and I have been a member for over twenty years. We feel responsible for doing this. It gives the students an opportunity to see what the real work world is like and hopefully they will come away with some understanding of the job in the field they selected."

Sophomores Patricia Langley and Megan Senkeleski were both interested in possible careers in medicine. They chose to accompany Dr. Anthony Micale to a Tinton Falls eye doctor's office where he demonstrated the different instruments and machines that an ophthalmologist uses to examine patients. He later took them for a hospital tour. He also answered all their questions on medical school and the various medical specialty fields.

Megan remarks, "Dr. Micale explained how the medical field worked as well as the hospital. I learned a lot about the different areas and specializations. In particular, I was very interested to see the physical therapy area in the hospital as I am interested in sports medicine."

The day was orchestrated by RBR School Counselor Chris Desiere who explains that sophomores are invited to attend career day as this is a time in their high school experience when students begin questioning what they might want to study in college and pursue for a career.

He adds, "The feedback was very positive. The kids loved the day and had very interesting and valuable experiences. It opened their eyes to things that they never might have considered before."

Chelsea Williscroft is enrolled in the RBR Academy of Finance and chose to shadow Two River's Bank Vice President Robin Fitzmaurice. She began her morning learning about Ms. Fitzmaurice's different responsibilities in commercial lending and then toured three different bank facilities for a personal lesson in local community banking.

Chelsea comments, "It was great because it was one-on-one and you could get so much more information. I thought I was interested in banking or law. Now I think I might consider a career in business law."

Some students chose the opportunity to explore a profession that is somewhat out of their comfort zone. Drama major and Visual and Performing Arts student Isabel Magnus accompanied RBR's own Resource Officer, Pete Gibson, for a tour of his responsibilities in the high school building. The two then set off to tour his other office, the Little Silver Police Department. Once in the parking lot, he opened his car trunk for Isabel to spy the special tools of the law enforcement trade. He allowed her to layer the heavy protective equipment on her slight frame, which eventually completely enveloped Isabel. She toured the station and viewed the finger-printing and booking process; she later went out on patrol with Officer Robert Chenoweth.

Isabel states, "I learned I was more interested in the field of law enforcement that I thought. It was so much better to shadow than to have a speaker come and talk to you about their profession because I am more of a visual person. I also got to ride through my neighborhood in a police car. We pulled over two cars for speeding and got to ride pretty fast on Seven Bridges Road. That was fun."