Students at St. Leo the Great School, Lincroft, learned about a variety of careers, such as law, medicine, dentistry, sociology, television production, and many more from professionals in the field during career day on March 24.

A professional who participated in the event was local business owner Ken Kalada, who runs Yestercades, which is a classic video game arcade in Red Bank. During the event, he encouraged the students to do what they are passionate about in order to be successful. Another participant in the event was Dawn Zolek, who is a special events coordinator at Nickelodeon and showed the students a behind the scenes look at the Kids’ Choice Awards.

“I reach out to the parents of kids in the school, to get presenters for the event,” said Maureen Yurcisin, a member of the PTA who organized career day. “We’ve also had alumni come to us asking to be a part of the day.” Zolek has three children who attend the school and Kalada’s nephew is a student at the school.

Yurcisin’s daughter, Colleen Yurcisin, who is a sixth grade student from Tinton Falls, seemed to be inspired by Kalada’s words and thought entrepreneurship might be in her future. Sarah Wiessel of Middletown, who is also in the sixth grade, really enjoyed the presentation from Zolek.

Jobs were not the only topic of discussion during the event.  During one of the sessions, students learned how college reviewers evaluate college applications by engaging in mock application reviews, which will give the students the opportunity to know what it’s like to apply to college in order to get a job.

“I do believe the students benefited from their day with the college recruiter because continuing education is so important, but also because the kids learned the importance of being well rounded,” Yurcisin said.

Cornelius Begley, the principal of the school, summed up the day nicely, Yurcisin said. “It’s important to have career day so that kids can see how what they’re learning here will be applied some day in the real world,” Begley said.