ShelbyGerken

“Empowering confident, independent-thinking leaders inspired by faith,” that’s the motto of Marian High School. But how does the school empower girls to carry out the motto? Everything we do at Marian as students is all a part of a master plan.

 Counselor Mrs. Anna Sparwasser said, “We are intentional. I think that’s a big difference between us and other schools. It probably stems from the Servants of Mary, a group of women who support each other and know that we are better and stronger when we support each other.” 

Marian promotes and teaches students life skills, such as networking, to empower us in our future endeavors. Marian teaches students things like: how to initiate contact with strangers, how to communicate in a professional and timely manner and how to make connections. Marian teaches us all these things through fun, community events where we may not even realize we are building life skills. 

“We intentionally put things into our curriculum that pushes you out of your comfort zone and utilizes the people, alumnae, staff or each other. We kinda force you to do that. Even WAT, you have to go out of your comfort zone and get involved in car washes, bake sales and go door to door to be stronger and better. But you do that in groups supporting each other, it’s all part of it. The more you do that, the more you will feel comfortable walking into a room and having to talk to people. Those are not innate skills, those are skills you have to work at and be taught,” Sparwasser said. 

In addition to events like Walk-A-Thon (WAT), Marian has programs that ensure students are making those life-long connections. Every senior at Marian must do a job shadow, where they must do research and make contact with a professional in the metro area with their interested career, and ask to shadow them for a minimum of four hours. 

 When asked about the job shadow program, counselor Mrs. Amanda Losee said, “I hope girls gain mostly the appreciation [for the program] just because this isn’t something that necessarily happens in all schools and just gain more information for their future. Networking is an important life skill because you never know what’s gonna come from networking. And a lot of times it’s who you know, not what you know. It’s just making those connections with people and making sure that you give a positive light to yourself and your organization because you never know what opportunities could open later on,” Losee said 

Counselor Mrs. Kathy DeWispelare said, “A big part of what we do here is help you all figure out what your true strengths and calling are. We align it with the idea of a vocation, getting some exposure to that possible calling that you have or the passion that you believe you want to pursue. So within that mindset, getting to do a shadow either gets you some of that networking going,” DeWispelare said. 

“[Networking] is so important for women, that’s why we do a job shadow. Men don’t have the same hurdles as women and so networking is a way for women to become cognizant of it and when we reach out to others because we know we have the hurdles, women are gonna get further in life,” Sparwasser said. 

Marian also hosts a yearly career fair where local businesses, including alumnae owned businesses, come to Marian and students can talk to them, ask questions and practice their people skills. 

DeWispelare said, “The career fair is nice because you don’t have to go out and find people. They come here in the building and they can give you good information and make connections to start that networking.” 

“We tap into our alumnae database. It’s a great way to connect students to those [opportunities], but I think that networking works really well when you’re in a big community [like Marian], willing to help each other,” she said. 

Marian students, no matter the grade, have gained valuable experiences with Marian’s help. 

Sophomore Ej Wells reflects on a experience she had freshman year with Marian Robotics. 

“For Marian Robotics last year when I was a freshman, we had to go to Union Pacific and we just got professional input from the head of communications and the head of engineering about how to go onto the professional world the best you can,” Wells said. 

“A big takeaway that I had was how hard you have to work to maintain that professional standard, you have to communicate, that’s a big part in the professional world because if you don’t communicate with your team [its not good],” Wells said. 

Junior Karis Simon has been working for Elle [McLeay] Seals Events for the past two years. Seals is a wedding coordinator and Marian ‘09 graduate. 

“Elle is my neighbor, her mom knew my mom was a Marian grad and asked if I wanted to work with Elle on a wedding,” Simon said. “We’re our own tight knit cute little Marian community.” 

Simon recognizes the connections she’s made so far, “There was one wedding I worked where it was a 2023 graduate’s older sister’s wedding, and I got to talk to her a bunch. And then I worked her graduation party too because of that. It was really cool and such an experience.” 

“[I have grown in my] talking skills, and I’ve gotten so much more confidence and more independence with her. All of Elle’s weddings I’ve worked at are all Marian-based. That’s where she finds a lot of her [clients]. I’ve gotten really good at conversing and finding a shared interest and being able to talk to people and that’s a really great skill. Marian is a tight knit community where you can get to know a lot of people and it’s really interesting to meet people [in this community],” Simon said. 

Marian and the vast alumnae network offers its students amazing opportunities that will be used throughout their lifetime.