Career Day 2026: When Career Guidance Becomes a Dialogue Between Generations

There comes a moment in every student’s life when they are faced with the need to make a choice. What do I want to be when I grow up? Which school should I choose?
At thirteen or fourteen, the world can feel both immense and impossible to decode. And it is precisely to support our Lower Secondary 2 students through this delicate phase that Career Day was created, a guidance project that brought energy, stories, and courageous questions to our campus at H-FARM International School Rosà.

Before meeting the world of work, students were first invited to meet themselves. In the weeks leading up to the event, they completed a questionnaire designed to help them reflect on their talents, passions, and learning styles. An inner mapping process, a necessary starting point: because finding direction first means understanding where you are starting from, even before deciding where you want to go.

Only after this process of self-awareness did students come face-to-face with the day’s guest speakers. And this is where the project reveals its most original aspect: the speakers were not external professionals brought in for the occasion, but parents of our students and alumni of the school. People who, in different ways, are part of the H-FARM International School community and who chose to return to share their own journeys.

Nine Groups, Ten Minutes, an Entire Universe of Stories

The day was structured to encourage genuine exchange: nine groups, one speaker each, ten minutes of conversation per rotation. A fast-paced rhythm that allowed students to connect with people from vastly different professional fields and life experiences, from industry to research, from hospitality to fashion and communication. A mosaic that, in itself, reflects just how broad and diverse the world awaiting these students truly is.

But even more striking than the speakers’ stories were the students’ questions. Honest, direct questions that opened the door to deeper reflections. Can you always change your life?
“Of course! You can reinvent yourselves every single day. Don’t limit yourselves. Every experience can reveal something about us that we never expected,” wisely answered one mother, who has changed careers many times throughout her life, each time doing something completely different from before.

And in an age when young people are increasingly wondering how artificial intelligence might transform or replace the jobs of tomorrow, another piece of advice emerged as a kind of compass: “Stay curious. The job you will eventually do may not even exist yet, but it will be connected to something you love doing.”

Students’ dreams also found space within the dialogue: some dream of becoming professional golfers, others of working for National Geographic making documentaries, while others imagine a future as party planners. Different dreams, yet all united by the same need: to engage with adults willing to take them seriously.

This level of clarity even surprised many of the parents, who admitted that at the same age they had not been nearly as certain about how life would unfold. “Seeing some of them already have such a clear idea of what they want to do, where they want to live, and the kind of work they see themselves doing really surprised me,” says Beatrice, one of the mothers. “At the same time, it made me realize that they probably have far more tools than we did at their age to understand the world and believe in a more defined future.”

There Is No Single Path

Perhaps the most powerful message to emerge from the day was precisely this: there is no single way to reach where you want to go. The stories shared by parents and alumni revealed profoundly different journeys, lives built through linear steps and lives shaped by detours; people who followed their plans exactly as intended and others who tore those plans apart more than once to start over. Even the seemingly “perfect” paths encountered setbacks, second thoughts, and moments when everything appeared uncertain again. And the “less perfect” journeys, marked by pauses and obstacles, still found their way somewhere, often exactly where they were meant to arrive.

It was within this space that some of the day’s most memorable words emerged: “In life, it’s important to be talented, but it’s even more important to be consistent.”

The recurring invitation was to choose by listening to oneself:
“Do what truly feels yours, because when you follow a path driven by passion, everything becomes easier.”
And then, with a smile: “Always aim high, at worst, you’ll land just below it.” Not encouragement toward performance at all costs, but rather an invitation not to shrink your ambitions before even trying.

What School Really Leaves You With

One of the questions we explored during the interviews was: what is the most important skill school has given you? Giovanni, one of our alumni, answered: “One of the most important skills I learned here was the ability to adapt to different situations and interact with people in different languages. As long as you learn how to adapt, you’re ready for any scenario, any type of school, and you don’t really need to worry about your future career, as long as you know how to connect with others and do what you enjoy.”

Penelope, one of our students meanwhile, reflected on what she found here: “I developed stronger social skills. When I arrived, I became more outgoing and learned how to adapt to my environment, because in a smaller community you learn how to get along with many different people. It’s a very welcoming environment, it truly reminds me of what a community should feel like. I also developed a lot of discipline; the school system here is very structured. We have many fun projects, but also many deadlines, and that taught me how to focus better. I think that will really help me in the future.”

And it was Giulia, another alumnus who offered one of the day’s most direct pieces of advice to the students:
“Treat school as a training ground for the world outside.”

An image that says a great deal about how those who passed through these halls now view their educational experience: not as an end goal in itself, but as a space in which to prepare for everything that comes after.

Bringing the day full circle were the words of Michell, the Lower Secondary Coordinator, who perfectly captured the school’s vision: “I think the school has given our students many tools. The language skills they have are certainly something that will prepare them for the future. Their technical skills, being tech-savvy in today’s world and knowing how to use technology responsibly, are definitely something they will carry with them. But I also believe they have learned to be empathetic. We have learned to work together to solve any kind of problem, whether it’s a math problem or a classroom issue. One of the things I appreciate most about my students is their ability to work together, treat one another with respect, and genuinely be happy together.”

This is what we hope our students will take home from Career Day: the awareness that their future is not a path already traced, but a space to be explored, one choice at a time. That every story they heard, every detour, every restart, every “what if I had…”, is proof that life rarely unfolds in a straight line, and that this is not a problem, but the most beautiful part of it. Our task as a school is to make sure that, when the time comes to choose, they will do so with curiosity, with passion, and with the certainty that they are not alone.