About 15% of those who graduate with a journalism major go on to a career in journalism. Preparing for a career in journalism is difficult, but The Morgan School is helping students to jumpstart their future careers through their new innovation, Future Path.
Future Path is a program for sophomores, juniors, and seniors that is aimed at educating students about career options. It teaches them how to get started, challenges, and opportunities with a career of their choice. The first meeting ever held by this program recently took place on November 12 in the Morgan Auditorium with a news anchor.
Laura Hutchinson, a well-known news broadcaster in Connecticut, came to the school to speak to students about her experience with broadcasting. Hutchinson has been a reporter with News 8 for about nine years now. She’s a Connecticut local being that she grew up in Hamden.
Ever since she was a young girl she knew she wanted to go into journalism. At the meeting she stated, “I actually became interested in the same way you guys are right now, a reporter coming to talk at my school.” From then on she devoted her life to this. Hutchinson went on to earn degrees in broadcast journalism and political science in Philadelphia at Temple University.
On the channel, she specifically is a part of Good Morning Connecticut, which is the morning news segment that runs in hourly sessions from 6 am to 11 am. It goes over the weather, breaking news, top stories, and much more.
The students who signed up for the meeting received quite a significant deep dive into her career and the life of a journalist. She spoke about many important aspects, but here are a few key takeaways from her discussion:
-Put yourself out there. It’s really important to contact the places you want to be involved in. Calling or emailing any headquarters to get involved in the industry somehow is a great place to start.
-You must be willing to travel. Broadcasting and journalism involve a lot of traveling.
-You may get discouraged at times as it is a difficult and demanding job, but if it is truly something you enjoy, the hard work will be worth it in the end.
-Broadcasting is more cut to the point on stories. Only the main points are told. The writing side involves more details and a deeper look into a story.
Karyn O’Beirn, the school counseling administrative assistant at The Morgan School, is one of the creators of Future Path. She had an idea and built the campaign from scratch with guidance counselor Christopher Marinaro. She felt that students aren’t always informed enough about the careers they want to go into and sometimes make the wrong choice.
She was present at the meeting and heard the same information that the students did. She shared with us that “The journalism meeting was very successful and even better than what I anticipated for our first one.”
Sophomore Libby Burns, who wants to go into a career involving sports social media, attended the event. At Morgan, she takes the journalism course offered by the school. She shared with us, “I learned that I need to start putting myself out there in the industry right now. It doesn’t matter if it’s internships or small posts, anything will help to set me up for future success. Hutchinson opened my eyes for me.” Hearing this information straight from Hutchinson helped Libby gain more confidence to go after what she wants because it is difficult to do that without hearing someone else say it. She went on to explain how the meeting was very informational and ran very smoothly.
In the upcoming future, there will be many more of these Future Path meetings to take place. The mentors of these meetings are chosen by members of the Clinton community reaching out through ads on social media and emails posted by the guidance department. Students need to keep an eye out for the sign-ups to attend these meetings because they could pop up at any moment, but will typically occur once per week. Sign-up Google forms will be emailed out whenever a meeting is being planned.
Mrs. O’Beirn suggests that students continue to attend these meetings because “it’s a wonderful opportunity for students to discover new careers, see if what they thought they wanted to do was the right fit for them, and possibly make connections with somebody in a field they are leaning towards.”
Overall, this meeting profoundly informed students who are passionate about starting a life based on journalism. O’Beirn argues that while this one singular meeting is helpful, the program as a whole will be a huge helping hand in preparing students for the real world in terms of becoming successful in certain careers.
Hutchinson left us with a quote saying “If you don’t try, you’ll never succeed.”
