Independent Study Mentorship students will head to Independence High School Wednesday morning to participate in the program’s annual Business Symposium. At this event, business professionals will conduct mock interviews with students and offer pointers and feedback.

“In terms of more logistic preparations, we’ve been getting together our portfolios and polishing our resumes in order to show them to professionals and hopefully get feedback,” senior ISM student Shobha Melukote said. “Mental preparation is also a big aspect, since being in a setting surrounded by professionals from all different fields can be a little intimidating, so I think many of us have just been familiarizing ourselves with how the symposium is going to work.”

The symposium is fueled by professionals volunteering their time and expertise, something appreciated by senior and second year ISM student Aniket Matharasi.

“The Business Symposium is all about helping us practice the simple things like our handshakes and our eye contact, making us more adept at conducting ourselves professionally and making better first impressions on the professionals we speak with,” Matharasi said via email. “They [professionals] take time out of their busy schedule to help students hone their professional skills and offer advice on the journey we are on and the future we are moving towards.”

This extra practice comes as ISM students begin concentrating on the search for a mentor and research interviews.

“While I probably will not speak to any professionals who work in my specific field of anesthesiology, there are definitely things that apply across all fields, such as people skills, communication, that I can learn about from the professionals that I talk to,” Melukote said. “I hope to be able to learn some of these more general things and how to apply them to my journey.”