A lot of students are asking themselves the same question, “What career should I do?” The question is even harder for an art student who wants to continue their education on the creative path.
However, there are a lot of careers people can choose from in the art world, but there is little to no information about them and not many people to talk to who do the job. And let’s be honest, sometimes the description for a course is extremely wrong, so you don’t know which ones you should choose to help prepare you for a certain career. Seems stressful, right?
The school hosted an event called “Creative Careers Night” on Nov. 2. During that night, any student could come and talk to a person who specializes in an artsy career. Art teacher Ms. Leah Ellert and school counselor Mrs. Meghann Townsend co-hosted the event with the help of National Art Honor Society volunteers, other art teachers and guidance interns. Mrs. Ellert said, “We feel very passionate that we want our kids to learn about what creative careers there are out there for them. We want them to know that their excellence is noticed and help them know what career they should go into.”
It was expected that only 60 to 80 people would come, but more than 120 future artists came to the school cafeteria and art gallery to learn more about careers they might want to pursue. Students from other school districts surrounding the area also came.
Mrs. Ellert said, “I got the idea last year from attending an arts-only panel at Plymouth- Whitemarsh High School and knew that we could do something similar. However, I wanted to ensure that we designed it to reach students in all of our creative elective areas.”
The night first started off with parents and children – grades 8 through 12 – coming at 6:30 p.m. to listen to twelve local guest speakers. Their jobs ranged from animation, to music, architecture and even baking. Some did interior design, floral design and photography. All the careers focused on something different and helped students get a better grasp on what they would do in the career. Some of the guest speakers were former students who now own their own business. Each one talked for about 4 to 5 minutes about what they did on a day-to-day basis, their education, degrees and how they found their love for their job.
Everyone was later moved into the gallery to talk independently and have a meet and greet with each speaker. The students and parents could ask questions going into detail about their day, the pay, what the career is like and any other questions that came off the top of their heads. Speakers like Jody Bortner showed videos of her animation and others like Meghan Reilly showed websites of her graphic designs demonstrating a wide range of genres. T.
The Careers Night lasted an hour and a half and helped a lot of future artists with their daunting questions about college with certain professions. Freshman Rachel Jasner said, “It helped me narrow down what type of engineering I wanted to go into. I thought I wanted to be an architect but that’s a lot of being at a desk and that’s not something I want to do.”
A few speakers had interesting stories on how they got to their job. Some were self-taught, some changed professions midway through college and others didn’t know they would have liked the career if they hadn’t given it a chance.
Dr. Barbara Golden came as one of the guest speakers as a teacher in music with a doctoral degree. Dr. Golden said, “It seems like everyone here loves what they do, and I think that’s my number one thing to say to you, do something that you love. When you start studying it, be willing to be open to something else, because you might change your mind. You can change your mind when you’re 18, or 22 or 35. That’s okay. You’re allowed to change your mind!”
Mrs. Ellert was pleased with how the night went. She said, “We are so thankful for our presenters who volunteered their time and expertise to educate our community and I am confident that some of our students will be sitting on the other side of the table in years to come. We look forward to seeing everyone at our next Creative Careers night in Fall 2025!”
