When you meet someone new the first two questions they always seem to ask are “where are you from?” and “what do you do?” The first one is generally pretty easy to answer and the second one may come with some complications. If you’re unemployed you may say something along the lines of “well I’m in between jobs right now” or “I’ve been looking for something new” and those aren’t satisfying answers. If you don’t like your job you’re forced to put on a happy face and describe the bane of your existence. Picking a career that will be fulfilling is a difficult task for anyone – especially high school students. Luckily, NYCID youth at YABC and Concord High School got the chance to head to the 6th annual Career Con held at St. John’s University Satellite Campus to learn about the many different career paths available to them, right here on Staten Island.

Career Con is an event put on by the Carl V. Bini Memorial Fund, 30,000 Degrees, College of Staten Island, NYC Department of Education, St. John’s University, Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, and Transition & College Access Center. The goal of Career Con is to connect students to different career paths and college opportunities while allowing local businesses and other organizations to recruit possible candidates. Career Con took place this past Tuesday on March 3rd, 2020 in the St. Johns gymnasium and connected over 900 high school students to discuss college, internships, and careers. Our youth were on the front lines taking it all in and making the most out of this opportunity.

While browsing the different tables David Garcia-Aguilar, a student at YABC said “[his] experience at career con is that it was inviting, there were a lot of careers that caught [his] attention and it was a great atmosphere to be in.” Youth empowerment is important to all of us at NYCID and we were so happy to be able to give them the chance to explore their options. Choosing a career that will satisfy both personal and professional goals is hard but Career Con made that choice a little bit easier for our kids. NYCID improves lives, let us help improve yours by signing up for one of our programs, no matter what stage of life you are in. For more about our service menu go to www.nycid.org