THE New York Tri-State Chapter of The Bishops’ High School (BHS) Alumni Association will hold its second career guidance Student Conference at its alma mater in Georgetown, Guyana, on October 16-19, 2019.

The three-day conference, which will be held at the school’s campus on Carmichael Street is titled “After Graduation-What’s Next?” Once again, the event aims to provide the senior students of the school with a unique opportunity to be exposed to a variety of perspectives on career choices, higher education and vocational opportunities, organisers said in a release.

This year, however, the conference has expanded both in scope and reach. President of the Alumni Chapter, Wayne Knight, notes that this year the group has targeted fifth form students in addition to the sixth formers, the original beneficiaries of this opportunity. “As we are cognisant that students tend to leave high school after either fifth or sixth form, we wanted to make sure that regardless of when they opt to leave, we would have the chance to interact with them in a meaningful way in terms of professional guidance,” the Alumni President explained.

The conference will host for the first time a career fair and three sports clinics.
“We invited businesses to our career fair, where they will have the opportunity to speak with students and showcase their businesses, while also showing the students what career opportunities might be available to them in their organisations.  Our association will also be providing the school with sports equipment that we will utilise as we have also added sports clinics in table tennis, badminton and basketball,” Chapter President Knight said. Students will take part in a team-building event and will also gain skills in CV writing and Interview Preparation.

The conference will begin on Wednesday 16th October with a Welcome Assembly and registration of the students at 8:30 am. The highlight of that day will be the Career Fair and the first Sports Clinic that will be held at 1.00 and 3.30 pm, respectively. The main events will be held on Thursday and Friday with concurrent presentations and workshops daily, featuring 37 presenters representing a wide variety of fields of study from Entrepreneurship, Law, IT, Medicine, Culinary Arts and Engineering, to new areas including Veterinary medicine and Agriculture, Energy, Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselling and Real Estate and Asset Management Services, to name a few.

“We hope that by providing the students with information and some of our own experiences, they will be better equipped in making decisions about their careers. We also hope in some cases to show them career paths that they may not have thought about as viable options,” said Alumni Chapter President Knight.

“We will be providing information about traditional and non-traditional careers, as well as many life skills that they will hopefully be able to start to cultivate now, and then continue to develop in the future.  I also hope that the conference will open their eyes to the broad spectrum of opportunities available to them,” said Chair of the Conference Planning Committee, Jo-Ann Davis-Valz. A former head girl of The Bishops’ High School, Davis-Valz says she is excited to be able to give back to the school that has been so pivotal in her own development. “I am especially looking forward to meeting the other presenters as an extension of the “true comrade and true friend” relationship as reflected in the school motto.”

Current Headmistress of The Bishops’ High School, Marilyn Gibson, in looking forward to the event said she hoped students would use the guidance given to be better able to decide where they would like to be in the next five years. “Strive to be a [well] rounded person not just an academic student,” she advised. The headmistress hopes that Communications, History and Foreign Languages will be among the career paths represented in the future.