Grade 10 Career Week Reflections

Our Grade 10 students had their Career Exploration Week from April 2nd-5th. Some examples of where they worked: media production, mining supplier, salon, music management, charity, hotels, veterinarian, and surf shops. I am very proud of this year’s group, because they really took advantage of this opportunity to organize valuable and challenging experiences for themselves. A big thank you to all the Grade 10 parents for your help! Here are some extracts from their reflections:

After being at Villa kitty for just 5 days I am extremely happy that I chose Villa Kitty for my work internship as I feel very inspired to one day provide care and safety for the animals in our world.

I enjoyed being with the cats because they were very loving and needy and playful which was also was relaxing and therapeutic for me.

I witnessed surgeries, emergencies, x-rays, blood extractions, wound cleanings, chemotherapies and a multitude of other procedures. I had the chance to learn how to perform some of these procedures myself. In conclusion, I found this experience truly fascinating and it has confirmed that becoming a vet is the career that I want pursue.

I was able to see a small data center inside the company. I got to touch and adjust some of the sensors used inside the data center and see how the data center manages to keep a constant temperature and humidity. This was really cool because I have only seen a data center in documentaries, so seeing it and experiencing in real-life gave me a weird feeling.

I went into the kitchen and learned how to take orders, serve drinks to the guests, polish the utensils, dishes, and cups in very little time. This was very challenging in the beginning, but I began to get used to it and it got easier and easier. I do see myself doing this job because the hotel industry matches my passion of travelling to different countries and meeting new people everyday, learning different languages and cultures.

I made fruit tarts, glazed cakes with chocolate ganache, piped cookies, baked sheet cakes, made granola bars, garnished and sliced cakes, and more. It was all very fun. Something I found cool was how huge the proportions were, since it is a hotel. At home, I usually use around four eggs for a recipe. A while ago, I cracked forty eggs for three huge chocolate sheet cakes. I’ve never cracked that many eggs consecutively before. After studying nutrition at university, I do plan on going to a baking school, but I still want to learn and develop my skills as much as I can at home before then.

Today I learned that in order to be efficient with doing backstage theatre you need to be able to work well with other people, so even though you’re not even on the stage you need to be collaborative and need to have patience.

For the whole day I worked as the cashier and understood the life of someone working. I engaged with a few customers at the shop. I enjoyed being able to help out and being able to set goals for myself where I was in charge and I took care of things. It made me open up and was able to talk more openly to the staff and customers. I learnt some great communication and risk taking skills today.

I learned that choosing a career based on your passion is the best way to go, because everyone that I worked with enjoyed their job and this made the working environment very friendly and comfortable. Another reason is because you can get work done a lot faster, instead of leaving it off, if you don’t like what you do.

I am disappointed that career week is ending and I wish I could continue this as a profession. This work experience was much more than what I had originally expected. I did everything in my power to truly connect with the children. I feel I understand what it means to be a teacher in an international school.

I learned that I am not very patient and I need to know that the place will be very quiet on some days and possibly very busy on other days. I have developed more communication skills because I had to interact with strangers and make sure they were satisfied with the environment.

After the customers left, I did all the chores I learned from the past two days. Washing the rashguards, mopping the floor etc. Honestly, the cleaning isn’t fun, but I learned that doing something for others and supporting each other feels good and is an important part of doing a job. My communication skills improved during career week as I had to talk to strangers. Even though I didn’t want to talk to strangers in the beginning, I started to realize that it is really interesting and fun to talk to people from all around the world.

I learned that music is a really exciting subject for myself. I think that if I become a producer, I will enjoy my job. This week gave me the confidence and motivation to become a producer who composes music for Korean dramas or movies.

What excited me most was the different parts of the job, like looking what aspect each person worked on. I got to see how they communicated and gave offers to different companies, how they designed the logos, how they made and arranged each song, and most importantly, how they collaborated as a team.

As the days go by I am able to communicate better with my co-workers and I believe today was truly productive. I was also able to get out of the office and talk with clients while visiting a photo shoot and wedding occurring in the hotel. Today was one of the most tiring days, but it was also very rewarding and valuable in my learning experience, as I now understand that it truly does take time to become accustomed to a new routine and work space.

By doing these things, I developed skills such as listening more carefully, respecting workers, and trying to be polite at all times. Because I was in a hotel, I had to be more respectful to others and I tried my best to present myself as a hard-working and confident individual. I was really good at the IT portions because I liked working with computers.

Overall I think my experience in the IT department has been one of the best so far and I definitely would consider a business in the IT related field. From this experience I think I would research more about the IT world and see if I am really into it and could pursue it in the near future.