Alumni Return for Career Day

By Katie Sigeti ’06, alumni relations manager
Friday, February 9 saw six alumni return to campus for Career Day, a longtime tradition in which the senior class has the opportunity to learn about various career paths from fellow Torreys. This year’s speakers, John Tessmer ’85, David Jay ’93, Nikki (McIntyre) Blackman ’97, Derek Zemen ’03, Tommy Morris ’08 and Armando Yee ’08 each spoke at assembly in front of the Upper School, including some of their former teachers and mentors.

The alumni speakers covered a wide range of careers and industries: John Tessmer is a theater actor and teacher who co-founded the La Jolla Theatre Ensemble; David Jay is the director of philanthropy at Rady Children’s Hospital–San Diego; Nikki Blackman is a licensed clinical social worker at Rady Children’s Hospital–San Diego and a medical social worker at Sharp Memorial Hospital; Derek Zemen is a sports marketing specialist at Red Bull; Tommy Morris is the executive producer and host of Southern California Prep Insider; and Armando Yee is a TV director and producer at FOX Deportes.

While each of these graduates has forged divergent career paths, they shared commonalities as they spoke to the Upper School. They reminisced about their time at LJCDS, while highlighting the impact of relationship building, mentorships, internships and seizing opportunities. They provided our Upper Schoolers with powerful advice before holding breakout sessions with our seniors. These smaller group settings allowed the seniors to learn more about the alumni speaker’s career path, ask questions and connect individually.

After the breakout sessions concluded, our alumni speakers had lunch with Head of School Gary Krahn, where they learned about the current state of their alma mater and where Dr. Krahn hopes to take the school in the future. While a lot has changed on campus since these alumni graduated, some things remain the same: Derek paid a visit to his pre-kindergarten teacher, Terri Zimmerman, while Armando dropped in on his seventh-grade history teacher, Richard Nelson.

Our sincerest gratitude goes out to John, David, Nikki, Derek, Tommy and Armando for spending the day with us and making this annual tradition a wonderful opportunity for our seniors. We encourage all alumni to stay involved with our community. As we remind them often, “once a Torrey, always a Torrey!”
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