Students Explore Careers Over Summer

Each summer, rising seniors in our Brother James Kelly, C.F.X. Scholars Program participate in career exploration experiences in a wide variety of fields, including medicine, business, finance, law, architecture, engineering, and more. Mount Saint Joseph is fortunate to have many alumni, parents, and friends of the school who are willing to host current students for shadow days or internships. These experiences allow students to dive deeper into their interests and discover what careers they may want to pursue in the future.

 

Liam Protzman ’25 reviewed a case with attorney Joseph Selba ’00 at Tydings and Rosenburg and sat in on the court proceedings. Max Torrens ’25 spent a day Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. He first met with Andy Brave, Director of Operations for Occupational Health, to explore the business side of hospital management, then shadowed Dr. Lisa Kirkland in the emergency room. Casey Hernandez ’25 also got a taste of a career in medicine, completing several shadow days in orthopedic surgery. He was able to observe a successful knee replacement!

 

On his shadow day with Tom Poe ’98 at Tower Federal Credit Union, Johnny Niccolini ’25 learned about all aspects of business and operations, including marketing, retail and branches, member service, and business intelligence. “I attended a newsletter content planning meeting, went behind the scenes of a major rebrand, experienced the creation of a product marketing campaign, and heard how data analytics is used to improve decision making across the credit union,” he shares.

 

William Malone ’25 explored a career in corporate banking with Greg Brouillette, Senior Vice President & Group Manager of Middle Market and Not-for-Profit Banking at M&T Bank. He met one on one with several executives and attended a sales meeting hosted by a senior vice president and group manager. Luke Pappas '25 spent some time with Erv Terwilliger '95 at Tower Partners, the company name an homage to Mount Saint Joseph's iconic landmark. He sat in on meetings with the directors and learned about the business of investment banking.

Adam King ’25 visited a scrapyard to retrieve a crashed vehicle for inspection at Impact Research. “We took photos, measurements, and videos of the damage and also pulled data from the cars internal database,” he says. “We then made some predictions and talked about how the car performed during the crash.”

 

Luke McCaffery ’25 and Jude Ross ’25 got a feel for a career in architecture. Luke shadowed Harold Sachs ’82 at Ammon Heisler Sachs Architects to experience the day in the life of an architect and business owner. Jude completed a program at Fallingwater Institute focused on portfolio preparation. “We spent hours in the studio sketching, designing, and finalizing two projects that we had three and a half days to complete,” he says. “On the final day, we presented and were critiqued by a panel of five architects and a sociology professor.”

 

The impact of the Kelly Scholars Career Exploration Program extends beyond high school as well. Last spring, Oliver Jefferson ’24 was awarded a prestigious four-summer, paid, civil engineering internship sponsored by St. John Properties, which is owned by Ed St. John ’55. Before heading off to the University of Notre Dame, Oliver spent the summer shadowing at St. John’s 16 partner companies to learn about the many specialties within civil engineering. He is invited back next summer to work more closely with two of the partner companies.

 

Thanks to these incredible opportunities, Mount Saint Joseph students are entering college with valuable professional connections and a clearer direction for the path they want to pursue.