Good morning,

My name is Anya Alekhina and I am a senior in Newmarket Junior senior high school.  As I am preparing to graduate I look back on my past few years in Newmarket and reflect on all that I have learned.  One of the biggest and most important influences in my development as an individual was the relationship that I formed with my classmates and teachers.  Being a part of school to career also played a part in my decisions about the future, by going on job shadows and participating in projects I have experienced things I would never get to otherwise.

I was given a sewing machine for Christmas when I was 12 years old and since then it’s become a curious fascination of fabric and patterns and why this dress I made is three sizes too big. As I grew up spending countless hours redoing my stitches and experimenting, I suddenly realized that this fun could be something that I would be able to do as a career. Enter Ms. Winterbottom- newmarket school to career coordinator, who set me up on several related job shadows and gave me countless advice along the way. At my first job shadow I visited a seamstress- as the day went on I realized what a hard work it is to be in front of a sewing machine all day. While my sewing consisted of projects that I wanted to make on my own time, being a seamstress involved long work hours and orders that you don’t have much say in. My next job shadow was with a sewing teacher in school, it was more hands on and I looked like fun, but I realized that spending all day teaching the same thing over and

over was not something that I wanted to do. Ms. Winterbottom came up with yet another idea- my third job shadow was to visit a t-shirt company and oversee the production from creating the design to actually printing it on the shirt. This idea opened up my perspectives; I no longer thought that producing a garment should be a one person job.  Going on these job shadows changed the way I thought about a job, I understood that it will take a lot more exploring to pick something that I want to do for the rest of my life, but it was a start.

To be given a chance to start exploring your career choices while still in high school is a great way to learn about yourself and start thinking about what you may want to be studying in college. While a lot students start off as undeclared or do a year program to discover what they like, doing a few job shadows and picking thorough all the options early on might make the choice about college easier and clearer.  After my visits I changed my mind about what I want to do after graduation, I am glad I discovered that a career as a seamstress is not for me before I signed up for any programs.

                On a positive note being in school to career made me rediscover myself, made me find out who I really am. The support I received for my community service and involvement in multiple school activities made me want to achieve more. This program is truly about finding out about what it is that we want out of our lives, and I advise everyone to get involved in it. Thanks for your attention.