Students drilled through multiple careers

Dozens of students were on Friday, 30 June drilled through multiple careers by guest lecturers from different professional backgrounds at the Seventh – Day Adventists (SDA) High School on Camp Johnson Road in Monrovia.

The Mercy Corps implemented Inter – High School Career Fair funded by ExxonMobil through Liberia’s National Oil Company witnessed Liberian Geologist Dr. Eugene Shannon, Economist James N. Gilayeneh, Jr., Counsel Sam – Kpa Sarto and IT Specialist Joel Van Toby and several others lectured students in their respective professions.

In his presentation, Dr. Eugene Shannon told the students that the choice they make today will determine their future. He began by encouraging students to stop spying in school but to rather focus on studying their lessons.

He says students should decrease their time in nightclubs and study subjects that are found to be challenging many Liberian students, like mathematics. He says those who may want to become geologists first have to develop passion for the profession and then be trained in courses related to the field of study.

According to him, a geologist could work with the Ministry of Agriculture because he or she might be needed to help make informed decision about where good soils are for farming purposes, among others.

Opposed to widely – held notion that the Liberian soils are “rich”, he argues that the soils here are poor in some places and certain areas would need to be fertilized before certain things are planted.

Earlier in his presentation, Economist James Gilayeneh encouraged students to understand both English and Mathematics if they want to choose economics as their career.
He dismissed claims that economists are cheap, but rather made the students to understand that economists are simply rational people who want to establish the cause, effect and economic benefits that come when money is spent for instance on the construction of a road at a particular place.

He also argues that an economist will not advise management to hire new employees when accounting records submitted at the end of each year continue to show decrease in revenues.
He suggested that females could do better in the field of economics if they put in more time to study the course and develop passion for the career.In addressing students’ concern about the high exchange rate between the US and Liberian Dollars, Mr. Gilayeneh argued that consumers here indirectly contribute to the problem on grounds that most of their preferences are not produced in Liberia.

He wondered how many Liberians want to sit on rattan chair, for instance, or eat locally produced rice (country rice). Instead, he says business people have to get US Dollars to import pepper and other stuff from Guinea to come and sell here. For his part, Counsel Sam Kpa – Sarto encouraged students to learn how to read with understanding if they want to be lawyers, warning that people’s lives, properties and reputation depend on lawyers.

By Winston W. Parley