The Second Annual Career Share Day - March 25, 1999

(April 3, 1999) The latest function involving the Alumni Association was the ever amazing Career Share Day which was held on Thursday morning, March 25, 1999.  The event was especially different since there was an occasional light rain for most of the day, which is not what we are used to here in L.A.  The day was a product of the cooperation among the teachers, administration and the alumni association. Of course, the former students of the school were the key to the success of the program. This event included presentations from 43 alumni, many of whom participating for the first time.

As usual, the day started out early, forming in the Library before 8:00 a.m., and after a brief welcoming and registration process where the classroom assignments were distributed. Then the day really began. For those of you who have been a part of the past Share days, you know there is some doubt as to how the students will receive you and whether you should have come in the first place.  Lincoln is now a 9th through 12th grade school only, and not 7th to 12th as lots of us remember our time there.  This gave us some varied audiences as we proceeded through the day.  The younger students probably have the most opportunity to use some of the information gathered about high school days, while the older students were better subjects for information concerning what happens when you have to go out and get a job.


We welcomed many new participants to the program, commending their interest in helping.  The seasoned veterans were also appreciated, coming back with some knowledge of what the student audiences were about from their earlier experiences.  After your first time in this program, you will wind up with 3 classrooms of experience for the day, quickly providing you with ideas for what may make the next time an even more satisfying experience.

There were some alumni who, as in my case, were not able to be here for the entire event because of job-related necessity.  As in my case, some of us had to come in after taking care of work items and then able to arrive and get into the flow of things.  From my experiences, I was glad to see we had many returning ex-students, which meant that their first time around was something that made them come in on their own time again for the students.  The presence of the new people was encouraging, especially since I had tried to get some of them to come the last tme around in September, which was full of scheduling problems for potential alumni participants.

We had representation from the Los Angeles Fire Department, firefighters/ paramedics, Rudy Martinez, and many from the business, investment and banking area, including Mary Mar, S'68, and others ( whose names I will add as I can get more later).  Lincoln's product serving on the federal court, District Court Judge Carlos Moreno, S'66, was able to spend some time with us, and certified public accountant Steven Whitehores, S'67, had his initial involvement in the event that day.

Other participants who are becoming regulars were John Pereida, S'68, Louie Cerros, '77, Ray Rios, and many others to be named here later.

We have had mother and daughter alumni participation in past events and the Farias family was represeted at this event in that fashion. There was more participation by legal field with Ray Gomez attending for the first time, and we had several other grads from the 80's bringing a younger viewpoint into the scene.  Our first Career Share Day last year brought out so many grads who became members of law enforcement, that it looked like there was some sort of police action happening with all the uniformed officers present (and we had many more detectives in plain clothes that day, too.)  

As always, we are appreciative of anyone who can attend, and understand that many would like to do so but are not able to attend because of job restraints.  This is understandable and still regretable, since we would like to have as many participants involved on these days to demonstrate to the students (and to the faculty, in some cases) that Lincoln students DO amount to something and are a part of world in various capacities, ALL of which are important in making things in society operate. And by showing these students some REAL LIVE PEOPLE, we can wake up some of the dormant spirits that reside inside each of them and help them to do something in school and later, before the opportunity is gone and the road becomes more bumpy (and expensive).