Volunteer for Fenway High School's Annual Career Fair on November 20th

Dear Friends & Supporters of Fenway High School,

You are officially invited to attend the annual Fenway High School Career Fair!

Your involvement is very important! As we well know, the economy is in a dire state and jobs are hard to come by. Fenway High School's Juniors and Seniors will be graduating into this economy and they need all the preparation they can get -- and YOU are the way to that end!

The Annual Career Fair is coming up around the corner (Friday, November 20th!). Please volunteer to conduct mock interviews, participate in a panel discussion or host a booth in our assembly hall. Your time and contribution will be invaluable!

Please help spread the word and encourage your friends, colleagues anyone who would like to give back to come and help prepare the future workforce with you! Last year we had over 100 participants and it made for a rich and diverse experience for our juniors and seniors.

What: Fenway High School's Annual Career Fair
150 students and 100 professionals from Boston's workforce spend the day sharing experiences, practicing interviewing skills, discussing career fields and preparing for the future.

When: Friday, November 20, 2009 - 8:30am – noon or 1pm
The day will be structured in three sessions - students will rotate, volunteers will stay put in their areas (see details below). If you can, please stay until 1pm and join the students for their first-ever networking lunch from 12- 1pm.

Where: Fenway High School
174 Ipswich Street, Boston, MA 02215 (Right across the street from Gate B at Fenway Park). Directions are included in the attached document.

Why? Because Fenway students are tomorrow's workforce and they need your wisdom, guidance and insight today!

REGISTER NOW! Volunteers can now register online two ways:

1. Go to http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dG9xZnROQ0FPX09HLW5MMmtTZExyVGc6MA

2. Go to our school homepage at http://www.fenwayhs.org/ and click on "Career Fair Registration" at the very top of the page.

Please feel free to forward this email on to anyone who may be able to help recruit - we want to make this is a rich and valuable event for our students and find people from ALL INDUSTRIES!

DETAILS ON THE ROLES YOU CAN PLAY:

Between 8:30am and noon, volunteers will participate in one of three areas (Mock interview, panel discussions or hosting a booth in our assembly hall - I'll describe further below) and there will be three rotations of the 150 students broken into groups of 50 each. Three groups of 50 rotate through the three areas of the career fair and cover all areas before the day is done. I provide lunch from 12-1 afterwards where students and volunteers can connect with each other more informally.

For the panel discussions, the 50 students will choose from one of two panels to attend. Students have selected their preferred panels ahead of time and the groups are small enough to invite conversation between the panelists and students. This is an important area to fill. Professionals (volunteers) are asked to talk for about 3-5 minutes about their work, how they got into the field, what they like and don't like about their work, advice they have for students thinking about studying to go into their field of work. After all panelists share, students begin to ask questions and the panelists can answer however they would like. I usually have panelists and students circle up so it feels more informal, less intimidating to the kids and so they feel more connected to you. There will be a brief orientation when you arrive in the morning.

The booths in the assembly hall are essentially tables where volunteers stand with information about their field of work (company info, pens, brochures and any other customized handouts) and they talk about the types of jobs kids can do if they go to work for their company (ie. banks hire software engineers, finance people, HR people, marketing people, etc). You can answer general questions about your company, the field you work in and if appropriate, any internship or job opportunities your company may have for HS students and who they should contact (you can ask HR if they have a summer HS student internship program - lots do). Set up starts at 8:45am.

The mock interviews are done by 18+ HR folks who are skilled in interviewing and can give students feedback at the end of the interviews. Each of the 150 students completes an interview during the career fair. A list of questions and a grading rubric will be given to volunteers during a brief orientation in the morning when you arrive. We need lots of people for this!