Virtual Townies Talk 2020

WHS and TOWN hosted our third annual Townies Talk, an alumni storyteller panel virtually on Friday, May 22, 2020 via Zoom. We were excited to be able to bring a bit of joy and inspiration back to the high school during this stressful time.

We had 12 different alumni speak about various paths they have taken after high school and gave solid advice to current WHS students. Advice ranged from how to choose a college, how to think about investing in education, and how things don’t always go as completely planned.

We laughed, we cried, we were truthful and honest. Our conversation lasted for two hours - so if you are thinking about watching it please set aside some time. Our mission is to tell real and raw stories of success and failure to bridge the gap between alumni and current students. This is a new kind of alumni network where we value "success" with an open mind.

Thank you to all the alumni who participated and made a difference. Thank you to WHS for your continuing support. Thank you to WHS students, for asking insightful and meaningful questions.

Please check out event details from the past two years here and here.

Townies Talk 2019

Our second Townies Talk 2019 event was a success! On April 8th, at least 60 Watertown High School students filed into the assembly room. Alumni told their stories about wildly different paths in life and gave great advice while students listened. It was so fantastic to be offline and in reality. We appreciate the teachers who encouraged students to attend the event and we think the 90 minutes was valuable time that not only helped students understand specific careers paths, but also life in general. 

The following day was Sophomore Career Day, ran by Nicole Lewis and Linda Bellemare. On April 9th, 54 volunteers from the community came to Watertown High School to speak with sophomores about their careers. Over 75% of the speakers were Watertown High School Alumni. Students learned about the necessary skills, training, and education to enter each field. Students also got to learn about what a typical day working in each field is like. This Career Day event will better help prepare sophomores before they enter junior year and begin to focus on taking courses tailored to their potential career paths and preparing for the SATs.

Thank you to all of the alumni that came out for the event, the teachers who organized, and the students who listened to our stories.

This year we brought a video crew to document the event, with hopes of creating better TOWN content. Stay tuned!

Happy New Year, Townies

Happy New Year, Townies! We love the idea of starting fresh, of course. 2018 was a great year for TOWN and as we reflect we can’t help but be grateful for all of the support from the community. Thanks for following along with us and helping us check off our goals. Our biggest goal last year was to create the event Townies Talk, and we did it!

In 2019, we have some very specific goals that we want to put out into the universe: publish at least 12 more alumni stories, hold another Townies Talk event with the goal of reaching 4x as many students and having double the alumni speakers, and to start our series about The Hard Things so that we can be more real, raw, and honest with our content. A plus would be creating a TOWN video, but we’ll see about that.

Keep supporting us in 2019, find us on social media and spread the word to friends. If you haven’t shared your story yet, share it today and inspire someone. Help us reach our goal!

Townies Talk 2018

Our first inaugural Townies Talk 2018 event was superb and we couldn’t be more excited. Around 40 Watertown High School students filed into the assembly room while alumni caught up about their lives. Alumni told their stories about vastly different paths in life and gave great advice while students listened (we didn't see one single cell phone pulled out). It was so awesome to be offline and in reality. We really appreciate the teachers who encouraged students to attend the event and we think the 90 minutes was valuable time that not only helped students understand specific careers paths, but also life in general. 

Some great advice given:

“I realized how easy it was to apply myself.” 

“Contact your college for expectations ahead of time.”

“I regret not working harder in high school. You may think it’s funny to forget your homework and say a stupid excuse to make the class laugh, but it’s just not.”

“Even if you love something, you still need to fight for it.”

“Take your time, there is no rush to figure out what you want to do.”

I was surprised to hear that many Watertown High School students didn’t know that TOWN existed and it really got me thinking about our strategy. We strive to be a vital resource for teachers, guidance councilors, and the administration. The materials that we produce and the stories that we share, can be easily applied to guidance councilors helping students figure out college decisions or teachers helping a student cope through a tough time. Many alumni are open to connecting with students and answering questions about career choices and student loans. Teachers, please feel free to reach out to TOWN and use us as a resource. Join our e-mail list so that you will receive updates when new TOWN stories are published, ask us questions, print these stories out, let your students know about this important resource. In the mean time, we’ll be working on a strategy too. One thing I’m hoping is to be able to reach the entire school with our stories, now it’s just time to figure out how to do it.

In the evening, we all got together at Fino Wood Fired Pizzeria on Main Street to enjoy some delicious pizza  for our Townies Talk After Hours networking event. Soon, these online story-tellers turned into my friends; we all live very different lives but we all share one important hometown. The conversations were inspirational, intelligent and hilarious. We laughed and plotted our next TOWN move. I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out. 

Thank you to Chelsea Kyle, Nate Habegger, Matt O’Meara, Emily O’Conner, Matt Dwyer and Lauren Vail for traveling to Watertown and taking time out of your busy lives to participate. Thank you to Nicole Lewis and Michelle Baim for helping organize the event. Thank you to the multiple teachers who saw the value and brought their classes to the event. I’m excited for the future of TOWN, and I truly hope that we can figure out a way to reach every student.