IN Brentwood-Baldwin-Whitehall Winter 2018 | Page 76

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
CAREER COUNSELING IN
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ALLOWS
STUDENTS TO EXPLORE
OPPORTUNITIES
Cramming for a test is never an ideal strategy. Even if
you squeak by with a passing grade, you don’t integrate
or retain the material. Proper preparation takes time. This
is why the Baldwin-Whitehall School District has brought
career counseling into the elementary school curriculum.
Sara Fiorill, School Counselor for elementary students
in the District, shares that career counseling in high
school, with SATs and college applications looming
large, can be stressful. She notes, “when we start talking
about careers younger than high school, it doesn’t have
to be a high-stress, decision-making time. It can be a
conversation and an exercise in creative exploration.”
Fiorill now spends two days a week focused on career
readiness with students. This includes exposure to a wide
variety of careers and the skills they entail, as well as the
soft-skills needed for any job. Fiorill explains, “students
start practicing those skills as early as kindergarten and
when they walk into a job interview they have it.”
SCIENCE RUNS IN THE FAMILY FOR THE HAHN BROTHERS
Over holiday meals, many families will discuss the latest football game. The Hahn family may
also discuss rocket science. That’s because two of the brothers work for Johns Hopkins Applied
Physics Lab (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and the third brother is a software engineer for the
government. The three boys take after their father, who is also an engineer.
Craig (BHS class of 2005) works as a software engineer in Germany. He develops websites and
applications for the U.S. and German governments.
Justin (BHS class of 2004) works for the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, as a spacecraft
integration and test engineer. He was recently a member of the team that built and launched
the NASA Parker Solar Probe spacecraft. The spacecraft launched this past August and will travel
closer to the sun than any previous mission, providing the closest ever observations of a star.
Brandon (BHS class of 2007) also works at APL but in the Air and Missile Defense Department.
He is a missile analyst working on the simulation model for the SM-3 Block IIA missile, which is
being jointly developed by the United States and Japan. He has worked on several recent live-
fire tests of the missile prior to its operational deployment by the United States and Japanese
navies.
The boys’ mother, Judy Hahn, notes, “Advanced Placement classes in math and science at
Baldwin inspired them to study engineering in college, leading to careers in the field.”
Pictured left to right: Brandon, Justin,
and Craig Hahn
HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS
December 1: BHS Choir, Gifts of Dance
December 3:
6th/7th Grade Band/ BHS Wind Ensemble
Concert at BHS, 6:30 p.m.
December 6:
8th Grade/ BHS Band Concert at BHS,
6:30 p.m.
December 7: HMS/BHS Strings Concert at BHS, 6:30 p.m.
December 10: 8th Grade Chorus Concert at HMS, 6:30 p.m.
December 11:
6th & 7th Grade Chorus Concert at HMS,
6:30 p.m.
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BRENTWOOD-BALDWIN-WHITEHALL
December 13:
WES Holiday Concert, 5th Grade Band, Choir
and Orchestra, 6:30 p.m.
December 14:
District Holiday Cookie Extravaganza for
Senior Citizens at BHS, 10:00 a.m.
December 20: BHS Winter Choir Concert at BHS, 6:30 p.m.
January 3-5:
Mikayla Davic’s Make-A-Wish Musical
“Lost & Found” at BHS, 7:00 p.m.