Students bank on exciting future careers

NEWPORT BEACH ? Kaitlin Gritsch learned some valuable job skills on Thursday in the annual Mentor for a Day program ? how to handle a hostage situation, how to deal with armed criminals and how to stay cool at gunpoint.

Police officer? SWAT team member? No, Kaitlin was learning how to be a banker.

The 16-year-old Corona del Mar High School junior spent the morning trailing Stacy Gorgie, a top-ranking official with Comerica Bank, around her workplace. For three hours, Kaitlin visited the vault, watched staff members punching numbers and even had an impromptu job interview. Along the way, she learned about some other parts of the job.

“My mentor has been robbed 13 times, and she’s been held for nine minutes at gunpoint,” Kaitlin proudly told the crowd at the Radisson Hotel, where mentors and students gathered to share their experiences.

For the last seven years, the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce has held the Mentor for a Day program to give high school students a taste of potential careers. In all, 77 students from five high schools ? Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar, Back Bay, Monte Vista and Orange Coast Middle College ? participated this year, observing interior designers, caterers and funeral organizers.

The annual event was started in 2000 with a small turnout, but it’s grown.

“It’s been increasing every year,” said chamber public affairs director Cara Stephens. “The first time they did it, it was about 40 people.”

At 7:30 a.m., the group, consisting mostly of juniors, congregated at the Radisson for breakfast and heard a speech from motivational author Bill Butterworth. Afterward, students and their mentors dispersed to different parts of town ? and sometimes to different parts of California, as the working day led to sites around the region.

Stephens herself served as one of the mentors, leading Corona del Mar High junior Amanda Knuppel through a day in public relations at the chamber. Amanda, 16, said the job was more hectic than she had imagined.

“She does everything short of excavating the Back Bay, but I’m sure if someone does, she’ll send out the press release about it,” she told the crowd about Stephens.

A number of students looked into law enforcement careers, with the Newport Beach Police and Fire departments guiding them around. Back Bay junior Ryan Gummerman visited a local Marine base, while others, including Corona del Mar High junior Zan Margolis, trailed criminal defense lawyers.

“I see lawyers glorified on TV a lot, due to ‘Law & Order’ and those other amazing shows, and I wanted to see law as it really was,” Zan, 17, told the crowd.

Many students had careers in mind when they started the day, but others were still deciding. After spending a day in interior decoration, Middle College junior Laura Meatzie said she was still mulling over her options.

“It’s either that or a high school art teacher,” said Laura, 16, after the luncheon. “I can’t decide. So next year, I’ll try that mentor.”