Front row: Tim Salem (principal, SRMS), Noelle Aronson (RPS PTA), and Kelly Siegrist (SRMS). Back row: Scott Roberts (RHS Guidance Department), Marty Fiedler (principal, ERMS), Judy Silver (RHS Student Life Office), Karen Baldwin (RPS superintendent), Ellen Brezovsky (Silver Hill Hospital), Anne Blood (RPS PTA), and Denise Qualey (Ridgefield Youth Commission).
Following Frank Bruni’s talk “Where You Go Is Not Who You Will Be: Becoming a Successful Adult” on Sunday, March 6, at Ridgefield High School, a set of three workshops will be available for parents and teens.
In the first workshop, “I Don’t Know What I Want to Do When I Grow Up: Career Pathways,” a panel of six professionals will describe their career journeys, as well as offer insights into choosing a career path.
The panelists include Suzanne Nelson, a children’s book author who began her career as an editor in New York City; Kristen Mahlstedt RN, a nurse in the psychiatric emergency room at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City; Dave Griffin, a teacher at RHS who began as a paralegal specialist at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.; Glenn Wilkin, an RHS graduate who took a gap year, changed his major three times, and is now a marketing executive at Major League Soccer, and Mike Principi, otherwise known as the “Hot Dog Man,” an entrepreneur who operates Chez Lenard on Main Street.
The second workshop, “Gaining the Freshman 15: The Essential Habits for Success in College,” offered by AnnMarie Puleo, assistant director of academic advisement at Western Connecticut State University, Lori Bran, an RHS guidance counselor and Karen Baldwin, Ridgefield superintendent of schools, will address the non-academic skills students need to succeed during college.
“Ready for Takeoff: Managing Stress in College,” the third workshop, will be given by Dr. Aaron Krasner from Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan. Dr. Krasner will talk with parents and teens about managing emotional stress in college.
Dr. Krasner will discuss the importance of using various support systems offered by colleges for any high school student heading off to college who has had educational, medical or mental health challenges during adolescence.
The workshops will be held in two consecutive 45-minutes sessions beginning at 1:30 p.m. Admission for the day is $10 per adult; teens are admitted free but registration is required — visit www.ridgefieldlibrary.org.
Sponsored by Ridgefield Public Schools, Ridgefield PTAs, Ridgefield Library, Ridgefield Magazine, Ridgefield Youth Commission, Books on the Common, Silver Hill Hospital, and Project Resilience, the program is the final event in a yearlong series of parent education workshops entitled “Parenting the Selfie Generation: Raising Successful Adults.”
The post Workshops for teens and parents to follow March 6 Bruni address appeared first on The Ridgefield Press.