MHS Lunch with a Professional
Messalonskee Principal Paula Callan wanted students to be more aware of career options after high school, so she started Lunch with a Professional. That was about a decade ago. Now it’s back.
“I am thrilled that it’s back,” Callan said about the resurrected program, “and also thrilled we are connected with Junior Achievement.”
Special Education teacher Lori Moses is the person responsible for bringing the series back to Messalonskee. Moses was not aware of Callan’s previous program but, like Callan, saw the value of making students more aware of job opportunities after high school.
Moses said Callan supported her efforts immediately, adding a question to a student survey to identify the professions students wanted to learn about.
The first three sessions in the program focused on single professions – lineworker, graphic artist, and game warden – and were limited to 30 minutes in duration.
But the series expanded both in the scope of professions offered and time dedicated to the lunch- and-learn opportunity once Messalonskee teamed with Junior Achievement, a national program dedicated to helping young people succeed in the work world.
The latest session, held on Feb. 2, lasted an hour and featured speakers from Bath Iron Works, Moody’s Collision, and Dead River fuel company as well as free pizza and a drawing for a Dunkin’ gift card.
Moses said next month’s Lunch with a Professional will feature people from various levels and categories of the medical community. One goal, she said, is to make students aware that most employers have a wide variety of positions to fill, many of them that require quite different skill sets.
Attendance at the first three sessions ranged from six to 12 students, Moses said. For the hour-long presentation with three trade professionals, the number of students who signed up surged to 18. Moses said the key to the increase is offering students a wider scope of jobs and employers within each profession.
“I think we will start to see even more students,” Moses said.
Another goal, Moses said, is to arrange opportunities for job shadowing, internships and apprenticeships between students and employers. Already, she said, a Messalonskee student is doing a job shadow with the graphic artist who participated in the program.
Moses said she has had no problem recruiting employers for the Lunch with a Professional program.
“They love it,” she said. “They love coming in to talk to students. I have yet to come across an employer who doesn’t think this is a fantastic idea.”
Callan, too, sees the program as a benefit to students and employers alike.
“This is a win for employers,” she said, “because they are able to connect with the young adults, and this is especially important in the current job market in which many employers are struggling to get workers.”