Light My Way ~ Career Day has connected hundreds of children to professionals in a wide variety of fields, exposing them to new ideas and possibilities for their future. Your donation will help us to continue this work and expand the program to create opportunities for more children.
It costs 140 dollars per student to participate in career day. Therefore, we will need approximately $20,000 to meet our goal of maintaining our not-for-profit status.
Interviews
Each student is paired with a trained mental health professional or educator. During a 30-minute interview, the interviewer unearths the child’s interests and connects them to the careers featured that year.
The team member is sensitive to the child’s pace, development, temperament, need for connection or distance, and adjusts the interview accordingly.
We are planning to interview students from two schools this year. The combined student total at the beginning of the year is 376. We are projecting an additional 50 students who enter the school in January due to charter school dismissals and new immigrants from distant lands joining the student body. Therefore, the projected total interviewed by the time Career Day rolls around will be 426 students
Translator
Our translator is available to attend interviews for those children who have just entered the school from a foreign land. There are many such children from Yemen. Our translators speak Ukranian, Arabic, French, and Spanish.
“The Book”
Each year, we assemble a book of photographs featuring 25 Career Volunteers working at their jobs. During their interviews, students view this book and choose two professionals to meet on Career Day.
Materials, Props, and Transportation
Many Career Day Presenters use supplies at their presentations that they give the children to take home. For instance, the fine arts painter provides each student with watercolors and paper, the orthopedist brings scrubs, and the florist brings flowers for the children to arrange and take home.
We also provide stipends for transportation. For example, the drummer must bring their drum kit, and the paleontologist must transport fossils to the school from the American Museum of Natural History.
Program Expansion
Our long-term goal is to replicate this program at Public Schools that are supported by the New York City Department of Education. Your contribution will enable us to develop strategies and plans to accomplish that goal.
Web design & maintenance
We are constructing a new website building upon this page that you see before you.