More than just a career day

Students broke free of the classroom last week and followed professionals around for the day to get a glimpse of what it’s like to work in the real world.

It was all part of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce’s 10th annual Mentor Day.

Sixty-one juniors from Early College, Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar, Back Bay and Monte Vista high schools spent their day with a judge, a chef, a theatrical public relations director, a real estate lawyer, a doctor, an investigative television reporter and a fashion designer.

Before the Mentor Program got underway, inspirational speaker Brian McAllister, co founder of “Roadtrip Nation,” on PBS, encouraged the students to define their own careers and roads in life.

“As you head out today with your mentors,” McAllister told the students inside the Radisson Hotel, “be engaged, have energy, enthusiasm and, most of all, be authentic.”

By noon, when the students returned to the hotel from their prospective jobs with mentors in tow, the place was abuzz with excitement, said Laura Boss, spokeswoman for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Max French of Early College was paired with Eric Longabardi, a local producer for ABC News.

French was amazed how “two years of research” can be turned into “90 seconds of air time,” Boss said.

For his part, and possibly in his defense, Longabardi said it wasn’t “all flash and cameras.”

“There’s a lot of nuts-and-bolts work to be done,” he said.

Five students followed Christopher Trela from the Laguna Beach Playhouse, where they talked to plenty of performers and workers. They learned that there were other pathways they could take and still remain in field of theater, including advertising, communications, even costume-making.

One student who paired off with a Balboa Bay Club chef said “with a sad face” that she had to kill a lobster, but she still is interested in becoming a chef, Boss said.

The purpose of Mentor Day is to offer local students an opportunity to interact with the business community and spend time with a member business in which they have a career interest.

Those interested in becoming a mentor can e-mail Boss at lboss@nmusd.us.