Page 19 - NYS_ESS_01-2025

Young Professionals try and explain everything we do in a very short amount of time,
Corner projects, local projects (specific to my actual town), and some
Corner
Corner
this year I quickly rolled through some photos of interesting
other things like monuments, equipment, scan clouds, and
anything visual. I described briefly what we do, why we do it, and
I chose to leave about 7 minutes for questions. Or I asked the
students questions to get them engaged. One thing I’ve learned
Paying the Profession Forward Part 2: over the years of working with younger kids in a teaching capacity
is to get them engaged early and often. So, I asked a question
Another Successful Career Day here and there during the actual presentation which seemed to
By Michael Lewis, LS, CFS work nicely.
Young Professionals Committee Member
For a larger event, such as a career fair where you may have a
As I write this, it’s a few days after Thanksgiving and about 2 weeks booth available to you, I’d recommend bringing some equipment
since I attended the second Career Day at my local middle school. if you can. A GPS receiver and a total station likely will be interesting
The same hallways I wandered all those years ago wondering to pieces to get a student’s attention. If you have the capability, a
myself, “What will it take to play Centerfield for the Yankees?” Well, laptop with a separate monitor that you can put a slideshow on of
it’s evident that dream didn’t pan out. But what did pan out is a career photos and information will be a good visual aid. Offer handouts
as a Professional Land Surveyor. For that I am thankful. that can guide students to NYSAPLS, NSPS, and other external
sources of information to help further their education (Alfred
I fell into this profession having been pushed towards it by my State or Ranger School). I believe NYSAPLS has a banner they can
father who knew the value of getting property surveyed and knowing send you for the event too. Most importantly, solicit help from
your bounds. Now I have an opportunity to show younger generations other like-minded surveyors in your local chapters. Many hands
what we do so they don’t have to find out by happenstance. For those makes for light work. It’s a great way to get a lot of engagement at
who may not have read the article in last February’s ESS, I outlined a booth where you only have a few minutes to grab someone’s
how paying it forward is a rewarding and also an important way of attention before they move on to the next one. It’s also a great way
helping to continue our legacies of Land Surveying and our profession to show other surveyors how easy it can be to put together a nice
so that we can help the ranks get younger and fuller. This year I’m presentation on what we do and why we do it. That will lead to
writing to show you how easy it is to prepare for an event regardless more of us looking for opportunities like this. If you can, please
of how big or small the setting may be.
pay it forward.
Now I’m sure no two Career Day events are the
same. Each school has its own system in place.
But what I can tell you is that NYSAPLS has some
great tools for helping you along if you need
material, PowerPoints, handouts, etc. The
Workforce Development Committee has created
two polls that you can take, the first of which is a
pre-event poll where you can specifically ask for
assistance if you’d like. The other poll is a post-
event poll where you provide your feedback to
the Committee. This helps them research how
often, and how well, we are attending events like
these. Each one took maybe 2 minutes to fill out.
The event I attended was more of a fast series of
20-minute seminars rather than a career fair
where you may set up a booth and be able to
bring props, equipment, videos, etc. In my case,
I was assigned a classroom and every 20 minutes,
a group of students would come in for my
presentation. There were 3 sessions in total.
Pivoting off of what I did last year, which was to

EMPIRE STATE SURVEYOR / VOL. 61 • NO 1 2025 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 17