A day to look into future

Corona del Mar High School junior Justin Edson has wanted to be a doctor since before he was even in high school.

At this point, he thinks he wants to be a cardiologist and cardiac surgeon, and now he’s thinking about what it takes to get there.

On Thursday, Justin and about 70 of his peers from Orange Coast Middle College, Newport Harbor, Corona del Mar, Back Bay and Monte Vista high schools shadowed a businessperson as part of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Mentor for a Day Program.

“I was glad for this opportunity because I get to see what it takes as far as education and what it’s like when you become a doctor,” Justin said after a tour and talk with a doctor at the Newport Urgent Care facility.

Newport Harbor junior Emily Sharif hopes to line store racks with her vintage-inspired jeans and clothes, but she knows she should learn the process from conception to marketing to shipping of a piece of clothing in order to be successful.

To get an overview of the fashion world, Emily took a tour of the Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver headquarters and got to speak with people in various departments, including vice president of marketing Greg Macias and bathing suit designer Tristy Carlsen.

Emily said later her favorite part of the day was meeting with Carlsen.

“It’s really important to see how a product comes out from the first concept, how the concepts turn into an actual garment, which turns into a sample and how production and distribution works,” Quiksilver’s senior global product and marketing liaison Monica Pauperas said. Pauperas served as Emily’s mentor Thursday.

The point of the day was to expose local students to careers they think they may be interested in. Mentors included doctors, music producers, photographers, airline pilots, marketing professionals, crime scene investigators and architects.

“The biggest goal is to build a bridge between our schools and business community because these students are our future businesspeople,” event coordinator Linda Hendy said. “We want to expose them to careers they may like or may not — exposure is everything.”

Justin learned that it takes much more than good grades on his transcripts to get into a respected medical school.

“So many people have good grades, the reason a person wants to become a doctor is more important — [that] and their volunteer time,” Newport Urgent Care spokesman Doug Lucero said Thursday.

After he spent his morning learning about owning a medical practice, Justin said he plans to look into volunteering at hospitals and clinics right away.

Corona del Mar junior Hayley Adler has her eye on crime scene investigation.

On Thursday she toured the Newport Beach Police Department with Senior Crime Scene Investigator Don Gage and learned that TV shows are nothing like the real thing.

“It was a great opportunity to see things I would never be able to see,” Hayley said.

For more information about the event or mentorship, call Hendy at (949) 729-4403 or e-mail lhendy@newport beach.com .