Inspiring Bright Futures: St. Peter CSS students get career tips and coaching from the pros

June 10, 2025

The cafeteria at St. Peter Catholic Secondary School was packed with students eager to engage with career professionals from the Peterborough area.

The event, which took place on June 9, 2025, was put on in partnership with HIEC, a not-for-profit enterprise that focuses on partnership, mentorship and workforce development.

This engagement is a new provincial government initiative that started this year geared towards younger secondary school students in Grades 9 and 10.

Alana Mowbray and Aaliya Muhsina, Career Coach Facilitators with HIEC, led the Ontario Lab Works session.

“We will bring the best professionals in the area and have them talk to the kids and tell them who they are, answer their questions and just have a conversation,” Muhsina said. “The purpose of the initiative is to take the pressure off the kids.”

“Kids, now, are already thinking about what they want to do for co-op and what kind of jobs and it gives them time to think about it now and speak with their parents,” Mowbray added. “We try to leave them with an actionable thing they can do such as researching a job, trying a job shadow or talking to their guidance counselor. It gets them thinking about it and even if they’re not doing a co-op or getting a job now, it gives them better planning for when they do that later.”

The students broke into groups of no more than eight and picked a table to sit at.

One career professional or coach sat at the table and engaged in conversation for about 20 minutes before they rotated to another table.

There were 30 professionals in attendance at St. Peter CSS.

And it certainly got the students thinking about their futures.

“It’s very important to learn more about yourself and the options that are out there, such as going to other countries to improve your beliefs about yourself and what you feel about your job,” said Maya Schraner, Grade 10 student. “It’s very important to get other opinions.”

“It’s important to expand your knowledge about careers and paths,” said Joseph Donald, Grade 10 student. “I need to pick courses and prerequisites down the line, so it’s important to think about this now.”

“It’s really cool and it’s given me a good idea of what I need to do for my future and some ideas of what I want to do,” added Lilyanna Damario, Grade 10 student. “While I’m not really sure yet what I want to do, I’m really working to figure it out.”

A similar event was held May 30, 2025 at Holy Cross CSS in Peterborough.