The Salem High School Alumni Association and Salem Rotary Club held their annual career day event for Salem sophomores at Kent State University at Salem Friday, with 40 professionals from across the community volunteering their time to educate students about dozens of professional careers. The event featured multiple presentations on career planning and the transition from student to working professional, and breakout sessions which placed students into two one-hour sessions to hear directly from professionals about their careers. (Photo by Morgan Ahart)

SALEM — The Salem High School Alumni Association and Salem Rotary Club held their annual career day for Salem High School sophomores at Kent State University at Salem Friday.

Each year the event sees the sophomore class attend a day of career exploration programming as part of the alumni association’s mission to foster student and alumni development, and Salem Rotary’s dedication to fostering education, leadership, and community service among the youth in Salem and surrounding areas.

This year’s event saw 128 students begin the day by attending two hour-long career info sessions from among 10 categories of careers including: nursing, medical imaging, laboratory medicine, speech pathology and physical and occupational therapy; teaching, counseling, social work, and non-profits; business ownership, entrepreneurship, economic development, human resources and insurance; forensic science, law, criminal justice careers including police officers, and detectives, and careers in the Federal Bureau of Investigation; engineering, computers, and technology; manufacturing, and military careers; skilled trades, and certificated careers; accounting, banking, finance, and oil trading; physicians, veterinarians, dentists, and pharmacists; and journalism, marketing, public relations, photography, and social media careers.

Each session featured three to five professionals from across the community discussing their careers with students, with approximately 40 local professionals in total donating their time for the event. These discussions gave information about their career and their own professional journeys, the required education for their careers, what they felt were the best and worst aspects of their careers, what they feel the future of their career is, and any recommendations they have for someone interested in pursuing a career in their field, and concluded with time for students to ask the professional any questions they had about their careers.

Following lunch, keynote remarks were delivered by Daniel Moore, the owner of D. T. Moore and Company LLC, and the Moore Agency, followed by an alumni panel where professionals shared their experiences as fellow Salem High School students, and of their transition to the professional world.