Evans City school holds career day
EVANS CITY — About 25 professionals from a variety of occupations came to the Evans City Middle School on Friday to talk to hundreds of students about their careers.
The list included an FBI agent, a chef, an occupational therapist, a locomotive engineer and a chemist, to name a few.
Principal Marie Palano said this is the fourth consecutive year the school has brought in more than two dozen professionals to talk about their careers.
“It's very important for us to give the children exposure to all sorts of different career pathways,” Palano said.
“It's always a fun day, and a lot of the presenters here are parents of students in the school. Parents are always proud of their children, but it's a nice role reversal where the kids can be proud of their parents.”
One of those parents was Eric DiTullio, who also is a member of the Seneca Valley School Board.
DiTullio talked about being an industrial construction estimator.
Using an analogy of baking a cake, DiTullio told the students in simple terms about his job. He estimates the cost of labor, the cost of materials and the cost of using equipment to arrive at a final cost for a project.
DiTullio said he's participated in the career day every year and he looks forward to it.
“I love talking to the kids and interacting with them,” he said. “Jobs like mine, these kids probably don't even consider before they hear my presentation.”
Student James Rodriguez listened intently to DiTullio's speech.He said afterward that he had no idea such a job even existed, and said he enjoyed the technological aspect of DiTullio's jobs.“It's neat learning about all these different jobs,” Rodriguez said. “It's a lot better than a normal day.”FBI agent Robert Craft had the students on the edge of their seats while telling them about his job.He explained the ins and outs of the bureau and told the students about the specifics of his job, which involves flying in airplanes taking surveillance video.The students were fixated on a screen as Craft showed them video footage he had taken from an airplane more than 4,000 feet in the air and a mile and a half away from a site.His job is just one of many that a person could have in the FBI, he said.“There are so many opportunities to reinvent yourself on a daily basis,” he said. “The bureau provides so many options.”Like DiTullio, Craft said he enjoys coming out to talk to students about a job he loves going to every day.“No matter their background or passions, there are so many options out there for kids,” he said.Student Tiler Stoops said Craft's presentation was by far his favorite.“What he does is awesome,” he said. “It was interesting to see how the FBI gets its (surveillance) videos.”Palano said the career day is the result of hours of work from the school's guidance counselor, who's worked for several months to put the program together.
