Career Day - July 1st, 2022

On July 1st, 2022, with the support of Blue Shield Promise Health Plan and Tri-City Medical Center, the Boys & Girls Club of Vista hosted our second annual Career Day.

The mission of the Boys & Girls Club of Vista is to empower our Club members through safe and impactful experiences to graduate with a college or career plan, contribute to their community, and live a healthy life. Our three priority outcomes are Academic Success, Healthy Lifestyles, and Character & Leadership. Career Day helps us impact the academic success of our Club members by allowing them to explore the variety of careers available to them and the educational pathways they need to take to achieve their goals.  The event served a total of 75 Club members between the ages of 5 and 14 years old.

Club members utilized passports with a list of questions that they created to speak with each volunteer who represented a different career.  During the event, Club members spoke with volunteers where they were able to gain knowledge and practice important soft skills that will benefit them in their future careers. The ability to practice introducing themselves and asking questions while building confidence will benefit them as they continue to learn and grow.

We’d like to highlight some of the volunteers who helped make this career day a huge success.

Starting off with Patricia King! She joined us for our 2nd Annual Career Day to represent one of our sponsors Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan, and give insight into her career as a Community and Engagement Manager. Club members learned about their free healthcare benefits for those in need and the benefits of working with the government. Club members were also gifted goodie bags that included water bottles, coloring books, crayons, magnetic chip clips, and star-shaped stress balls. Patricia and Blue Shield Promise Health Plan ROCKS!  

Nicholas Esayian was probably the most unique career we had join us for our Career Day this year as a RACE CAR DRIVER turned CEO.  He brought tons of equipment to show off including a race suit, one of his helmets, and much more. He’s even making a helmet for one of our Club members that he connected with, we can’t wait to see the final product!

Cue Health! Sarah Eilen (Specialist II, Engagement and Culture), Cory Ring (Manufacturing Training Supervisor), Dr. Jordan Granata PsyD (Supervisor, Clinical Human Resources), Sean Duncan (Learning and Development Specialist), and Kariya Lau (Employee Engagement Intern) from Cue Health joined us for the second year in a row at our Career Day.  Our kids truly enjoyed learning about their COVID-19 test which was the first FDA-authorized molecular diagnostic test for at-home and over-the-counter use without a prescription and physician supervision. Sharing the diversity that a healthcare technology company has shown our Club members that there is a wide scope of opportunities within each and every company out there. Big shoutout to Cory and Sean for pumping up the crowd with the WOOT WOOTs and Kariya for joining us on her second day with Cue!

Tri-City Medical team! Kelsey Fetzer (Community Engagement & Events Specialist), Cassie Klapp (Marketing Manager), and Jessica Shrader, MBA (Government Affairs & Community Engagement Manager) took part in our 2nd Annual Career Day as representatives for one of our sponsors Tri-City Medical Center. By sharing their varying backgrounds and the roads they took to get to their current positions, it showed our Club members all that their city has to offer and sparked their interest in what their future may look like. Thank you, Tri-City Medical Center!

Derek Jaime from Target Vista North for going above and beyond for our Club kids during our Career Day. Derek came equipped with a raffle where Club members got to guess how many pieces of candy were in the jar to win it and enter to win a basketball or skateboard. Being that Derek was a past Boys & Girls Club staff member, he says he has a special place in his heart for Clubs!

Svetla Walsh, a Cybersecurity Officer in the United States Marine Corps, who joined us for our 2nd Annual Career Day. She shared that her interest in computers drew her to getting a degree in Information Technology to help land this position. She also shared that she enjoys being in a field where each day brings a new set of problems to solve. Svetla also regularly volunteers at our Main Site doing STEM classes with our middle school group.

And last, but certainly not least, we’d like to thank Shannon Watkins from First Citizens Bank as she joined us for the second year at Career Day to chat with our Club members about her career in banking. She played bank trivia, gave away goodie bags, and shared some fun details about what happens behind the counter.

We’d as a Club would like to thank all of the wonderful people who helped bring this day to fruition. To our wonderful sponsors and patrons, thank you all so much for wanting to help lead the youth to a better tomorrow and a brighter future. And to our wonderful Club members and staff; you’re amazing, thank you all.