BY ALEXANDER SOULE
Hearst Connecticut Media
A half-dozen students from Danbury High School were walking a mirrored corridor in the Matrix Corporate Center on Tuesday when an elevator ”“ nearly invisible due to its door also being mirrored ”“ opened before them.
The scene summed up the Junior Achievement experience as well as any: Hold up a mirror to students’ entrepreneurial instincts, creativity and work ethic, and watch them hit the “up” button.
For a second year, Junior Achievement of Western Connecticut held a career day at the center for some 50 students enrolled in its introductory business skills courses, with students on hand from Bethel, Brookfield, Newtown and Danbury.
- Ana Engelhardt, left, and Milandra Nelson, both 16 and Bethel High School students, participate in a mock job interview conducted by Rhonda Neal, of Guideposts, during a Junior Achievement event held at the Matrix Corporate Center in Danbury. Photo by Carol Kaliff
In addition to touring offices at Matrix, whose tenants include Praxair, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and the Eastern College Athletic Conference, for the first time this year students got the chance to get mock job interviews from participating companies.
As president of JA of Western Connecticut, Bernadine Venditto is charged with helping about 22,000 JA students throughout the Bridgeport, Danbury and Naugatuck Valley regions get their hands dirty, learning to build businesses themselves, rather than watching others do it on the small screen. The Matrix Corporate Center tour is one small piece of a multifaceted program that stretches over six weeks.
“What we did this year was enable the students … to go to each company and interact one-on-one with what the company is about and learn more about them,” Venditto said. “And the mock interviews … we took what … we thought were the best pieces of last year and improved upon them.”
Bethel High School sophomore Daniel Islam said his interviewer cut straight to the chase, asking him to detail what he saw as his greatest weakness, but Islam said he thinks he got through it OK. Thanks to the proliferation of programs like “Shark Tank” and “The Apprentice,” among other reality shows, students today are perhaps better schooled for the unexpected in any job interview setting.
Kelly Mangold did not enroll in JA herself growing up, but all three of her children have gone through the program, and as an instructor and board member of the Danbury arm of Junior Achievement of Western Connecticut, she knows the mindset of local participants as well as anyone.
“It’s interesting, because I teach fifth-grade (JA students) and you go over the definitions ”“ what’s an entrepreneur,” said Mangold, a senior vice president with the nonprofit publisher Guideposts in Danbury. “By and large you get ‘Shark Tank.’ … And then they go, ‘Facebook ”“ I’m going to be an Internet entrepreneur.’ But ‘Shark Tank’ has been really beneficial because you can use it in the classroom.”
At its heart, JA is the ultimate local lab, given the wide range of work experiences students can bring into the sessions by virtue of the jobs held by their parents, relatives or other adults in their lives. Mangold recalled the Danbury JA cohort a few years ago who put their business skills to work in organizing a car wash to benefit a classmate who had cancer. And a group last year leaned on their JA background to lead fundraising for a class trip.
On Tuesday, Cosmo Alberico stepped away from his day job as chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Odyssey Logistics & Technology to help out with the career day, with Alberico vice chair of the JA’s Danbury community board. On any given day, his company will handle logistics of 10,000 shipments globally ”“ but he knows the most important commodity to this area’s businesses going forward was walking the halls of Matrix on Tuesday.
The career advice he had for students was to stay positive, be a team player, communicate and get things done without fear of making mistakes. And learn to like math, because you may need it, and it may open more than a few elevator doors for you along the way.
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury). See stamfordadvocate.com for more from this reporter.
