Novi Middle School Students Explore Opportunities at Career Day

What do you want to be when you grow up?

students started thinking about their career options Wednesday morning as they listened to and asked questions of more than 40 Novi professionals at the school's Career Day.

Speakers included a teacher, engineer, nurse, molecular genetics researcher, attorney, actress, police officer, firefighter, accountant, dentist, and even an FBI agent and federal air marshal — just to name a few.

Detroit Red Wings Vice President and Assistant General Manager Jim Nill was the keynote speaker and talked to all 900 students in the gymnasium at the beginning of the day.

"I'm 53 years old, and I still don't know what I want to be. So don't worry," he joked.

Nill, who grew up in a small farm town in Alberta, Canada, said he would have never expected to end up living in Novi and managing the Red Wings.

"The world is full of opportunity, and we don't know when or where the journey is going to take you, but you can prepare yourself for this journey," he said.

He said students should follow several principles to prepare for life, including building a strong foundation, being committed, making good choices, being passionate and keeping an open mind.

"I have a challenge for every one of you ... go into this world, make it a better place to live each and every day," Nill concluded.

After students asked Nill several questions about his job, they gave him a large round of applause with some cheers.

Planning for life

Parent Lisa Molloy co-chaired Career Day with fellow PTO member Lisa Rice. She said she was pleased with the diverse group of speakers and asked them to not only describe their jobs, but also explain how they decided to go into their career and what they had to do to get there.

Sheryl Sulak, owner of , spoke to students about being an entrepreneur. She said she started her business when she was just 14 years old.

She told students that being successful is not about luck.

"Position yourself in the right place. Take the right classes, volunteer in the right places, meet the right people, work it, and it will get you everywhere," she said.

Molloy said they surveyed all of the students to see what type of careers they were interested in. Even though many students said they wanted to be professional athletes or actors, each of them was assigned four speakers to listen to — some which matched their interests, and some to make them think outside the box.

"We wanted to do this now before the kids got done with high school and they're trying to figure out where they want to go. Just to get them to start thinking about what path they want to take," she said.

Novi Police Officer Shawn Pensak was one of the speakers and brought along his K-9 partner, Moose, to show the students.

"It's a great opportunity. I like being able to show Moose to the kids and give them an idea about what we do," Pensak said.

Seventh grade student Donovan King said he enjoyed learning about other jobs, especially seeing the K-9. His dad was also at Career Day, speaking about being a federal air marshal.

"I'm excited to see him," King said. "He usually speaks at other schools."