Lynnfield High School held a career fair last Friday. Twenty-seven local businesses and organizations had tables at the fair, ranging from law enforcement and lawyers to interior design and investment management.
All participants had ties to Lynnfield, either living or working in the community.
Organizer Mark Vitagliano was inspired by his own experience with the process of choosing a school and a major, saying “When I went to college, I applied to Syracuse and I applied to the business school. I don’t know why. It was like a process of elimination. I didn’t want to be a teacher, a doctor, a nurse. So I chose business, but I had no idea what that even meant.”
He decided a career fair made up of local people successful in their many different careers could help students leave high school with a better sense things than he had when he went to college. He emphasized how impactful the community could be: “From from my lens and my experience, most successful people that I know are more than happy to share how they got to where they got with anyone willing to learn.”
LHS Principal Patricia Puglisi likened this kind of event with the recent initiative at Lynnfield Middle School to introduce students to their options with vocational school, saying “Its having kids understand their skill sets, where they need to grow and develop more, and what skill sets are required now in the workforce. … It’s really those skills that are going to allow kids to succeed.”
Vitagliano was very thankful for all the collaboration and support: “I would like to thank Tricia Puglisi, Stephanie Leonard, and Annmarie McCormick for their collaboration and especially all of the professionals who so generously gave their time and efforts to support our high school students and their future.”
He plans to make these an ongoing event, hoping for two career fairs a year. Any interested professionals in the community can reach out to him directly at markvitagliano@gmail.com. As he said, “it’s really important; it’s our responsibility as parents, educator, community members to really get our students more prepared.”
