All Oak Park and River Forest High School students are invited to attend Black Professionals Day next Tuesday morning to meet local Black professionals who are making waves in the community and inspiring younger generations.
Black Professionals Day will be held Tuesday, Feb. 20 during the second and third period in the auditorium.
Registration is required and students must register by Friday, Feb. 16 by 2 p.m.
The event will include breakout sessions and provide students an opportunity to network with local Black professionals.
The goal: to show students the different trajectories there are after high school.
“A lot of the time, the kids walking through these hallways have such tunneled vision that they can’t see past senior year,” said Ty Garland, community outreach coordinator at OPRF. “Some of this is such new territory for so many kids and parents.”
Garland said there are 102 students signed up for the event.
Garland, who is also the varsity football and varsity track and field coach at OPRF, said he has improved upon last year’s event in hopes more students would be encouraged to attend.
This year, the event will be held in the morning because by the end of the day last year, when the event was held, a large portion of the students had already been dismissed for the day.
“The problem was that as soon as that bell rang, kids were gone,” Garland said.
By moving to an earlier time, Garland said he hopes to mirror the success they saw with Hispanic and Latinx Professional Day, which was held back in October.
Participating students will have the opportunity to attend for either period or both if they choose to stay.
This year, Garland said, they planned for breakout sessions to allow students to rotate among the professionals who will be speaking.
This year, the high school will be hosting a range of participants, including Kevin J. Jackson, village manager for Oak Park, who has had a career in local government for 25 years.
Other participants include Tamekia Swint, executive director of Styles 4 Kidz, Anthony Ashe, a senior partner at Modern Executive Solutions, and Symone Speech, who is not only an OPRF alumna of the class of 2015, but was also a professional volleyball player, among other honors.
It was extremely important to have the attending professionals to explain their journey and really showcase “life after high school,” Garland said.
“The one thing that I really started to look for initially were OPRF alumni,” Garland said. “That are here in the area, that are doing well.”
In attendance will be Marz Timms, former Chicago Bulls in-arena host and one of the owners of the Comedy Plex comedy club in downtown Oak Park.
Garland said he has also been contacted by local parents who were made aware of the event and asked to be a part of it.
“I have a variety, from doctors to lawyers, you name it and they are coming,” Garland said.
Garland added that he hopes the event serves as a stepping stone to allow students to see the possibilities after high school.
“That is what I am telling the professionals to focus on,” Garland said. “Let them know your story. Let them know that everyone’s story is unique and different and that there is no cookie cutter way to go through this process.”