Career Weeks

Thank you all so very much for the time, extra effort, and willingness to help our class learn about the world outside of our little classroom.  We love to bring opportunities for real learning to our students, and you all were a huge part in making that happen.  Your kindness is much appreciated!

Anesthesiologist

    Our first presenter was Dr. Kalathiveetil.  He is an anesthesiologist.  He takes care of patients so they don't feel pain during surgery.  His daily responsibilities are to check his patients, supervise the nurses, and help people with their wellness.

   His days vary.  Sometimes he can get to work at 6:00 a.m. and work until almost midnight.  There are days that he will even get called at night so his job does not stop when he gets home.  He does wear a uniform to work called scrubs.  This is a uniform that is worn during surgery at the hospital.  

   Dr. Kalathiveetil does communicate with people all across the county and the world.  He does not work alone because he has 26-30 people that he works closely with.  Sometimes he travels about every 3 months.

   He attended Loyola University and went to 4 years of college and 5 years of medical school.  He worked one year in Pediatrics at Children's Memorial and then one year at Loyola in the Open Heart floor, which is the area that he works in now.  Now, he is working at Alexian Brothers Hospital.

   The hardest part of his job is that he needs to wake up so early in the morning to prepare for his patients.  The best part is seeing his patients smile.  He loves to make patients feel good, and he is very excited to have this as his career!

Flight Attendant

             

             We were lucky to Skype with Grace Whang.  She was a Flight Attendant for 9 years at Skyservice Airlines based in Canada.  She had many responsibilities.

            Her biggest daily responsibility was to make sure the passengers and crew members were safe.   She did wear a special uniform and her days ranged from 10-12 hours.  She worked 1-3 days a week, and could not exceed more than 75 hours a month flying. 

            Ms. Whang was in college for 2 years and studied Travel and Tourism.  She said that it is good to know another language.  She chose her job because she wanted to travel and see the world.  She does not find it easy when she deals with passengers who aren’t happy.  Her job does stop when she comes home.  She gets to visit people all over the world, but doesn’t have to communicate with people all over in order to do her job.

            Ms. Whang works in a Day Care now, but still wishes to go back to her job because she didn’t want to quit.  Her company went out of business.    She loved her career and hopes to be back soon!

Megan, Allyson, Anastasia, and Angie

Accounts Payable Department

             

           We saw Becki Mares.  She works at AIM, Inc.  She is the only person in the Accounts Payable Department.

            Ms. Mares has been working in her job for four years.  Her daily responsibilities include reading emails, paying bills, and answering phone calls.  Her work days are Monday through Friday from about 8:30 until 5:15.  Her job ends when she leaves her office.  She does not have a uniform, but she has to wear business attire.  She does communicate with other people around the world through the phone.  She has talked to people in Mexico, Greece, Australia, China, and many more.  She does not travel for her job, but other people in her company do.

            We learned a lot about her company too!  It is the first in manufacturing companies in the United States and third in the world!  They build machines that bend wire.  We watched a video and it was amazing!  The machines are made by Engineers. Her company has done business with G.E., the Department of Defense, and Walt Disney!  It seems fascinating!

            Ms. Mares went to Marion College for two years.  She has been in her career for 14 years.  The hardest part of her job is when she sees errors in paperwork and has to fix them.  The best part of her job is when there is a problem and she solves it!  She hopes we can all find a job that we like just as much as she does!

Jordann, Ava, Rohan, and Mitchell

Gastroenterologist

   Dr. Chadha is a gastroenterologist, or a stomach surgeon. He works at Palos Community Hospital.

    He gave us a saltine cracker and told us to hold it on our tongue for about a minute. It dissolved in our mouth. We learned that our digestion starts in our mouth and the saliva helps food dissolve. He showed us how the food goes through our bodies. We should always chew our food completely. He showed us a picture of someone who had food stuck in their esophagus. Dr. Chadha had to help him remove the stuck food. Sometimes he uses a special camera to see the inside of the body and the intestines.

    We asked him what inspired him to choose his career. He said he always loved to play video games. They help your skills, but he told us not to play them too much. He worked with a scientist when he was in high school and liked doing that.

The best part of his job is going into people’s stomachs. He can help people feel better. The worst part of the job is all the paper work. He does not have to travel for his job.

   We wish we had even more time to ask him our questions, but we are glad we learned so much.  We could tell that Dr. Chadha really loves his job.

By Reese, Olivia, and Rohan

Quality Assurance Manager

We were lucky to have Mrs. Galinski come to our classroom.  She is a Quality Assurance Manager for Endotronix.  This is a small medical company that makes products for people in the medical field.  As an example, her company makes an implant pressure sensor and a wireless reader to read information and send messages to doctors.

Mrs. Galinski is in charge of the quality system.  Her days are Monday through Friday from 8:30 - 5:00.   During the day, she writes procedures, trains other people, reviews drawings. measures parts, and works on reports.  Her job does stop when she comes home, and she doesn’t wear a uniform.  She does communicate with people around the world.  Sometimes she talks with people in Switzerland, England, or with her boss in California.  

The hardest part of her job is asking people to complete their projects numerous times.  She also has to be careful not to make mistakes.  Finally, she has to handle things if they get audited.  Mrs. Galinski likes her job for many reasons.  She loves to ask others questions to make other people think about the right choices to make.  She also likes that she is helping people stay out of the hospital by using her company’s product, finally there is lots to learn, and she loves to learn new things.  

Mrs. Galinski was a great speaker to hear from, and we learned a lot about her career.  Thank you!

Danny, Wyatt, and Anastasia

Engineer

           Today we Skyped Mr. Pete Munoz.  He lives in Denver, Colorado. He works as an engineer for Lockheed Martin Space System Company.  Mr. Munoz has worked at this company for 8 years.  His company designs, builds, and launches Satellites, Missiles and Human Space Flight Capsules.  His company helps design and build pieces that make things fly in space.

            Mr. Munoz taught us facts about the Orion Space Capsule such as it’s weight is 46, 850 pounds, it moves at a speed of 20,000 miles per hour, and he also taught us about the difference between boiling points at sea level and where the Earth’s atmosphere begins and ends.  He also shared information on a Power Point about how a satellite works.

            His job is important for many reasons.  They perform medical tests to improve life on Earth.  They build Satellites to help us know about the weather such as when a snowstorm is coming.  We see these pictures when we watch the weather on the news.  They build Space Capsules so they can look at the stars in our galaxy to learn about them and where they come from.  They help and develop things like GPS systems, lasers, cameras, medical tools, and medications.  Mr. Munoz’s company sells more things to other countries than any other industry in the United States.

            It was interesting to hear from Mr. Munoz.  He shared some great facts to help us learn.  He loves his job and gave us some good tips.  We need to work on learning the best ways to write, learn the strategies of math, and be good thinkers.  We enjoyed listening to him.

Sophia, Sami, and Megan