Skills for Success

By Catie Mino, Engineering and Entrepreneurship Program Head

What does it really take to walk into a job interview, a summer program application, or a networking conversation—and feel ready?

That's exactly what the LAUNCH: Future Ready Series was designed to do for Marlborough students. Offered through the Shari and Edward Glazer Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, LAUNCH is a lunchtime workshop series that gives students hands-on exposure to the professional skills they'll need—long before graduation day. In its second year, LAUNCH was intentionally designed to give students real-world professional skills alongside their academic experience. This series was brought to life by a roster of accomplished, real-world practitioners as well as leadership from our esteemed, expert Engineering and Entrepreneurship faculty. 

We kicked off the series by asking students to do something deceptively simple: take stock of what they've accomplished and who they are beyond the classroom.

Our Resume Writing workshop, led by Marlborough finance instructor and startup founder Sun Migliacci, set the tone for everything that followed. Students started by identifying their “super skill”—a fun way to reflect on what makes them stand out before putting a single word on the page.

From there, Ms. Migliacci walked students through the practical side of resume writing: how to quantify achievements, lead with strong action verbs, and tailor their experience to the opportunity in front of them. By the end of the session, students left with a template in hand and a much clearer sense of how to present themselves on paper.

That work set the stage for our next session, where I, as Engineering and Entrepreneurship Program Head, guided students through translating all of that into a LinkedIn profile. For Middle and Upper School students, having a professional online presence might sound premature—but it's not. LinkedIn is where internships are posted, where professionals connect, and where industries live. Students came in with the material they had already drafted in the resume workshop and put it to work, building out their profiles and taking their first steps toward connecting with Marlborough alums and professionals in fields they care about.

Another highlight of the LAUNCH sessions came from a familiar face: Vivian Campbell, a nationally recognized expert in leadership development with over 20 years of executive experience. Ms. Campbell, who had run abbreviated sessions in previous years, returned to campus for an extended session on interview skills—and we were just as excited to have her back as our students were.

Ms. Campbell is effervescent, passionate, and has a rare ability to meet students exactly where they are. Through a series of hands-on and group exercises, she gave students the confidence to speak with adults and peers about job opportunities, internships, and beyond. Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation Allison Ponzio observed the session and noted that Ms. Campbell was "effective at bridging the gap" for students who had limited practice with social skills during the pandemic or who hadn't yet had much experience communicating with adults in professional settings—a need that continues to be more relevant than ever.

We rounded out our professional skills workshops with another familiar face—Michelle Seijas, a leadership coach and speaker who has coached over 100 leaders and inspired thousands through keynotes and workshops, and who many students recognized from her role as a judge at Marlborough’s annual Entrepreneurial Hackathon.

Ms. Seijas worked with students in a small group session centered on uncovering their superpowers. Too often, we are asked to identify our weaknesses and then work to improve them. This session flipped that script, starting with the VIA Character Strengths Survey, which gave students the language to name and own their strengths. From there, she guided students through how to leverage those strengths to lead—and how to build a team, ask for help, or delegate in ways that fill in the gaps rather than fixate on them. It was a powerful framework for any setting, whether a job, classroom, club, or sports team, and left students with a new way of thinking about how they show up and collaborate.

The intention of the LAUNCH series was also to make sure students left with the tools to know what to do with their money—whether a prior workshop had sparked an idea for a side hustle, they were already earning, or they were heading off to college and navigating finances for the first time. To close out our professional skills series, we welcomed Brittney Castro, a Certified Financial Planner, leading speaker, and insurance broker, who led students through a financial planning basics workshop.

Ms. Castro covered everything from net worth and budgeting to credit and debt management, saving and financial goals, and the basics of investing. Students also had the opportunity to complete a Dream Worksheet, a framework for creating meaningful, personal financial goals that connected the numbers to what actually matters to them.

The session felt especially relevant for the students—financial literacy is still an area where young women are historically underleveraged and underserved, and giving them this foundation early is one of the most practical things we can do to set them up for long-term success.

The series concluded with a session led by me and Ms. Migliacci on how to put together a standout application for one of Marlborough's most exciting offerings—the Frank & Eileen Incubator and Accelerator. This after-school program gives students the chance to explore and build their own business ventures, with real mentorship and support behind them. It proved to be the perfect finale: a session designed to help students take everything they've built throughout LAUNCH and channel it into an application for a program where they can actually put it into practice. The Frank & Eileen Incubator and Accelerator gives students the opportunity to develop and launch their own business venture—and yes, it makes for a pretty impressive resume line too.

 

Accompanying this article is a picture of Vivian Campbell presenting to students.