By Dean Maschoff
On March 30 two accomplished members of our congregation met with North Chicago Community High School students to share their work and career experiences.
Nic Cass said that the idea for the career discussion sessions with students came about following the Faith on the Fairway charity golf outing. “We met with the North Chicago career/guidance counselors and came up with the idea of the Q&A sessions with members of Faith. All North Chicago seniors were invited.”
Moderated by Nic, Dick Hocking and Cheryl Wiemer led discussions with groups of North Chicago students and their career counselors. Nic posed a set of questions to Dick and Cheryl, including: Why did you end up with the career path that you had? What were some of the more challenging aspects of your career?
Meeting with about fifteen students, Dick indicated that he had a long career as a consultant engineer. “Being a consultant, you really need to be able to communicate and connect with a wide range of people with diverse backgrounds. I had to give many presentations—actually, sort of speeches—to different stakeholder groups that had sometimes differing interests about the projects that I had designed and was proposing.”
Dick explained what the different types of engineering degrees were but noted that being an engineer is about “problem solving.”
While he has both BS and MS degrees, Dick told the students that he came from a humble background and was inspired by his father to take responsibility for his life and to get a good education. “It may be obvious to everyone today, but I told students that they needed to stay on top of technology changes,” Dick said. “I also indicated that teamwork skills were very important and that they should always understand, at least at a high level, the underlying business fundamentals of their employer—where the money comes from (revenues) and where the money goes (costs).”
Dick indicated to the students that the two-year program at College of Lake County was a good place to “start the process” and that an associate degree could always lead to getting a bachelor’s degree down the road.
In meeting with a second group of about a dozen students, Cheryl noted that (as a woman) she didn’t have a lot of career choices when she was younger. “But I chose nursing because I like to work with people and like to help people. Nursing is about people.”
She indicated that in her nursing career she’s had considerable diversity in that she has worked in a hospital, in clinics, and in a nursing home. “I told them that in nursing there are a lot of different directions you can go. I also told them to do the research—there’s a lot of information online these days about positions and pay scales. I also told them that taking science courses in school was important but that they didn’t have to have straight As to become a nurse. They would have to have some schooling and training after high school, but there’s money available (in the form of grants or loans). You just need to go and look for it.”
Cheryl said that while most of the students were exploring their options for careers, “a couple of them raised their hands when asked if they were serious about nursing.”
Nic summed up the sessions by indicating that “Dick and Cheryl have both had very successful but very different careers. Hopefully the students could see that if you’re passionate about your work, you can have a successful career.”
Please contact Nic if you would like to participate in a future career discussion session at North Chicago.