Eighth Annual Young Professionals Conference To Provide Students with a Guide to Career and Employment Opportunities

The Eighth Annual Young Professionals Conference will be held from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) in Rockville, Maryland, on Wednesday, March 18. Sponsors of this student-centered event include the Montgomery County Business Roundtable for Education (MCBRE), Montgomery County Public Schools, USG, and Montgomery College.

This event affords more than 700 students, in nine career pathway programs, the opportunity to experience a professional development conference designed for them, complete with a keynote address, interactive breakout sessions, and a networking lunch. A Styled for Success fashion show also is planned to educate students about how to dress appropriately for the professional world.

The keynote address will be presented by Kathleen Matthews, former ABC evening news anchor at WJLA in Washington D.C. She currently is serving as Executive Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs, for Marriott International, Inc.

Interactive breakout sessions are presented by local and national business partners provided through MCBRE. Among the presenters are Adventist Healthcare, Booz Allen Hamilton, Clark Construction, Deloitte, Department of Homeland Security, Tip Fallon, FDIC, Foulger Pratt, Hess, Hogan and Hartson, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Lockheed Martin, Marriott, McDonald’s, NASDAC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ritz Carlton, Sodexo, David Thompson, UnitedHealthcare, Venable, and Wachovia/Wells Fargo.

The primary goal of the breakout sessions is to engage students with relevant topics in their fields of interest that help them as they plan for college and careers after high school. Conference experiences are designed to complement the instruction that students have been receiving through their career pathways.

The nine career pathway programs that the students participate in include: the National Academy of Finance; the National Academy of Hospitality and Tourism; the National Academy of Information Technology; Advanced Engineering–Project Lead The Way; the CISCO Networking Academy; Early Child Development; Justice, Law and Society; Medical Careers; and the Teacher Academy of Maryland.

This year, an Entrepreneurship Expo will be a part of this conference. Teams from nine or more schools will compete and showcase their projects at the Expo to earn trophies and prizes.