THANK YOU to everyone who made our Career Forum another great success! A special thank you goes to our Planning Committee and Participants for their invaluable contribution. It was fun, engaging and a wonderful learning experience. It takes a great amount of time and energy to plan and execute this wonderful event so please know that it is of great value to and appreciated by our student community. We hope the tradition will continue on for many years.With gratitude,
Jivanti & the Mount Madonna School Community
Planning Committee:
Ariel Benson
Beth Brennan
Rod Caborn
Michael Don Carlos
Debbie Dutra Lord
Stephen Harrington
Brian Liddicoat
Vik Sheldon
Christine Smith
Jessica Thomas
Participants:
Beth Brennan, physician
Gene Ching, magazine publisher
Noah Diffenbaugh(’92), university professor
Michael Don Carlos, pilot
Lisa Lewis, middle school principal
Nancy Lockwood, environmental projects manager
Magdalena Montagne, poet
Jeff Powers, landscape business owner
Carl Rising, aerospace engineer
Jay Sullens, firefighter
John Thomas, software professional
Karina Vogen, prothesist/orthoist
John Wagner, attorney
Catherine Willis, dance studio director
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On April 17 the Assembly Room will play host once again to the annual Mount Madonna School (MMS) Career Forum, now in its sixth year. The brainchild of a group of MMS parents, the Forum offers MMS high school students the opportunity to listen to and interact with both MMS parents and alumni from a wide variety of professions in a fun and engaging way.
The Career Forum is organized by MMS parents from both the lower and the upper schools. As Brian Liddicoat, a planning committee member this year and a former Career Forum panelist, puts it, ‘the MMS Career Forum is a great way to fulfill the goals we all share as MMS parents: using our own life experiences to help guide our MMS students as they prepare for college.’ In addition to Brian, the planning committee members for this year’s installation of the Career Forum are Ariel Benson, Beth Brennan, Michael Don Carlos, Debbie Dutra-Lord, Stephen Harrington, Vik Sheldon, Christine Smith and Jessica Thomas, with Rod Caborn returning as the event’s energetic emcee.
The committee members are dedicated to creating an event that will get the students thinking about their futures while showing them that, like life, a career is not so much an end goal but rather a journey, with bumps, bends, peaks and valleys along the way that define who we are as adults today. ‘The intent behind the forum,’ said Christine Smith, who is chairing the planning committee this year, ‘is not to just put a bunch of professionals in front of the kids to say what they do in their jobs on a daily basis.’ In true MMS fashion, the goal of the event runs deeper. ‘We hope to provide an environment where students are exposed to and inspired by occupations they might already have thought about, or might never have considered, and where they learn for themselves that a ‘career path’ is hardly ever straight and narrow.’This year the committee has put together a group of 15 participants sure to interest and inspire our high schoolers, including a commercial airline pilot, a doctor, a middle school principal, a lawyer, a poet, a university professor, a landscape business owner, a fireman, an aerospace professional, the owner of a dance studio — and more!
We’re looking forward to seeing the students there!
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By Christine Smith
Contact: Leigh Ann Clifton, Marketing & Communications,
Nestled among the redwoods on 355 mountaintop acres, Mount Madonna is a safe and nurturing college-preparatory school that supports students in becoming caring, self-aware and articulate critical thinkers, who are prepared to meet challenges with perseverance, creativity and integrity. The CAIS and WASC accredited program emphasizes academic excellence, creative self-expression and positive character development. Located on Summit Road between Gilroy and Watsonville.
