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Silver Mesa students learn about possible future professions at Career Day

Apr 26, 2017 09:26AM ● By Julie Slama

Air Force Command and Control Operations Staff Sgt. Nathan Marsh shares with students some insights of his job during Silver Mesa’s Career Day. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

By Julie Slama | [email protected]
  
Air Force Command and Control Operations Staff Sgt. Nathan Marsh said the most important part of his job is not doing it.
 
“If I do my job, it means nuclear war,” he said.  “So I actually don’t want to do it.  I just want to always practice it.”
 
Marsh and other parents and community volunteers were at Silver Mesa’s Career Day, telling students the pros and cons of their professions and letting them know what class subjects have been helpful in careers ranging from artist to electrical engineer.
 
Marsh said he typically spends his 12-hour, four-day work weeks practicing decoding messages, which to others may look like “print-outs of random letters.”
 
Looking for a full-time job, Marsh entered the air guard part time until a full-time position opened. 
 
“I went through basic training, technical school and then air command school so there was a lot of schooling and things I needed to learn to do my job. Reading, math, spelling — all the subjects you’re learning now — I use every day,” he told third-grade students.
 
In a first-grade classroom, physical therapist Amanda Reddin said she uses a lot of science and math in her career.
 
“I had to learn a lot about bones and muscles,” she said. “There’s a lot of memorization and needing to understand angles as the tools we use measure angles for the patients’ range of motion in say their knee.”
 
To become a physical therapist, Reddin said she went to college for four years, then to graduate school for two years. She earned her doctorate degree, three years later.
 
“I love education. I love learning,” she said.
 
Reddin said that she chose the career partly because of its flexibility of working part- or full-time or with certain patients.  She started working with soldiers in the military with injuries and has also worked with athletes recovering from sports injuries. 
 
Currently, she is working with seniors who she needs to make certain they’re capable of being able to live at home alone, such as getting in and out of bed, using a shower or climbing stairs. 
 
She also said her job is appealing as physical therapists are needed everywhere, so she can choose where to live.
 
Her other reason: “I get to work with people and help them get better. I love doing that.”
 
Louise Bean brought in several hats to show all the roles she plays daily as a mother.
 
“I’m a CEO, housekeeper, facility manager, driver, psychologist, caterer, party planner, chef, day care provider, teacher, laundry operator, van driver, technology manager and sports coach,” she said.
 
Bean, who also works at the school as a special education aide, emphasized the importance of being a parent.
 
“You do these jobs and so many more when you love your kids as a mother,” she said.
 
Even though first-grader Alexis Reddin wants to be a horse trainer, she came to realize the importance of being a mother.
 
“It’s hard to be a mom,” she said. “I didn’t realize all the things they have to do for us kids.”
 
Her teacher, Sam Milianta, said Bean’s presentation was impressive.
 
“She showed a lot of good visuals so students could see how she needed skills in reading, math, science and juggling so many things at the same time,” he said.
 
Principal Julie Fielding said that Career Day is one that students like as they learn about careers as well as have their parents present in their classrooms.
 
“We hope that students become more aware of what careers are available and this sparks some interest in them learning more about them and the education they’ll need,” she said. “In almost every profession, they need to learn how to read, write and problem solve so that helps to reinforce what they’re learning now.”