Maya McFadden Photo
Nataly Magana with a doll she uses to help explain to child hospital patients what they're going through.
Nataly Magana told a classroom full of New Haven Academy students that she once considered becoming a teacher herself.
But instead she took a different career path — one that also involves counseling young people in need and helping them stay calm and flourish amidst challenging circumstances — as a certified child life specialist at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Magana and six other community members shared their stories in a second-floor U.S. history classroom last Friday during two “Jobs You’ve Probably Never Heard Of” panels held at the 444 Orange St. magnet high school.
The panels were hosted for two sophomore classes looking to learn about potential careers. The goal of the panels was to start early conversations with sophomores about the school’s internship requirement they will need to meet during their junior year.
During her presentation to the students, Magana explained how she ended up in her children’s hospital job, rather than as a teacher or a nurse, and talked them through what an average day’s work looks like.
While sharing her story, Magana showed the class “toys” she uses on the job such as a baby doll with a nasal IV tube, which she uses to teach the youth about what they may experience in the hospital. She also had what she calls “elsa spray,” which is a numbing spray she uses to numb skin, and “buzzy bee,” which is a vibrating ladybug used when youth get needle injections and need to be distracted and hide the sight of the injection.
At times her job may include reading a book or blowing bubbles with patients as they undergo procedures to make them more comfortable.
Magana said the most rewarding part of her work is seeing the kids smile.
Students work on panel worksheet noting down questions for panelists.
The Orange Street magnet school invited seven community members to discuss their current jobs, how they got there over the years, and what exactly they do in their roles.
The first panel included Patricia Drax, who works as a “residents’ advocate” for Mayor Justin Elicker’s office in City Hall; Natasha Ghazali, who works as an interpretation manager at the Yale Peabody Museum and who is a New Haven Academy alum herself; and Earl McCoy, Jr., who works as a diversity program coordinator at Yale.
The second panel included Magana, Executive Director of Eli Whitney Museum & Workshop Ryan Paxton, Cannondale graphic designer and New Haven Academy alum Yadavi Patil, and Yale Chaplain Associate Erica Adarkwa.
The panels were organized by New Haven Academy’s part-time internship coordinator Sara Armstrong. An additional two panels will be hosted at the school over the next month to reach more sophomores. Armstrong also created an online exhibit of all careers for the entire student body to access and learn from.
For each hour-long panel last Friday, the guests discussed their life journeys and the previous jobs they worked before their current ones. Their childhood dream jobs ranged from wanting to be a lawyer or artist to a journalist or nurse.
Many spoke about building several different skills in high school and college until discovering their current passions, while others grew up with encouragement to pursue career paths most rewarding to them.
“You can have very rich work lives that change,” Armstrong told the students while introducing the panelists.
Panel with Patricia Drax, Natasha Ghazali, and Earl McCoy, Jr.
Each year New Haven Academy’s juniors are required to spend three weeks in May doing an internship in a career field they’re interested in for high school credit. They intern during the school day and return to school once a week to debrief on their work.
Armstrong said currently two New Haven Academy alums work at the organizations they interned at while high schoolers, one of which is with the City of New Haven.
Sara Armstrong.
Panelists shared about why they enjoy their jobs as well as about the challenges and frustrations that come with their daily work. Struggles ranged from dealing with imposter syndrome while constantly having to prove their expertise, establishing a work life balance, feeling demoralized while working a 9 – 5, and running up against deeply instilled bureaucratic systems.
While organizing the event, Armstrong aimed to introduce careers to students they likely haven’t heard of in TV shows or on social media platforms. She emphasized the goal of planting seeds about various careers in the students’ minds.
Paxton told the students that before stepping into his current role, he previously worked as an artist, a butcher, and an electrician; all of which provided him with skills for his current job at the Eli Whitney Museum.
"It Opens Our Minds"
Panelists Yadavi Patil, Nataly Magana, Ryan Paxton, and Erica Adarkwa.
City staffer Patricia Drax's advice to students: Negotiate fair work hours instead of 9-5 and always have a side hustle.
During Friday’s panel, Magana brought some tools with her from the children’s hospital to show students some specifics of the work she does with sick children.
She shared she works from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with daily responsibilities including teaching young patients about what their medical diagnoses are and how those are affecting them. For example, she works to break down what it means to have a brain or spinal tumor.
Her goal, she said, is to provide comfort to the patients which at times involves going through MRI scans with youth, providing bedside support, and normalizing the hospital setting for the youth, especially those coming for a first time.
Magana demonstrates the "elsa spray."
While in high school, Magana dreamed of becoming a nurse. When she went to Southern Connecticut State University she realized she did not want to be a nurse but still wanted to work in a hospital in some capacity.
For a period Magana pursued being an educator because of her passion to work with kids, but ultimately found a child specialist job at the hospital suits her best.
When asked what her work day looked like the day before the Friday panel, Magana said she did a morning briefing with the doctors and nurses for current patients on the 20-bed floor. During that day last week, she said she had 15 patients.
She next worked with an asthma patient doing deep breathing training and met a new 10-year old patient with a brain tumor.
Sophomores Alexandra Berthely and Vanessa Sebastian.
Sophomore Vanessa Sebastian asked Magana why she picked her job over being a nurse.
Magana said nursing was a lot more focused on the clinical work in hospitals and did not fulfill her desire to build relationships with patients and their families.
After the panel Sebastian and fellow sophomore Alexandra Berthely said they enjoyed getting an idea of jobs they can pursue.
“It opens our minds,” Berthely said.
While both are unsure about the careers of their future they said the panel helped them to get an idea of what different career fields are like.
“It was good to hear how their jobs make them feel, like if they’re overworked or it’s not fulfilling,” Sebastian said.
After each of the panels, humanities teacher Jake Crutchfield told the students “you can never start networking too early.”
See below for other recent Independent articles about teaching, reading, working and studying inside New Haven Public Schools classrooms.
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This is a great idea! There are so many jobs out there that people don’t even know exist or what they are like to work in or what training or education they would need to work at those jobs. This type of education about the many jobs out there outside of the more obvious jobs we all know about, will help high school students to decide on career paths and trying out new jobs when the first one isn’t the right fit or gets tiresome.
There are also many jobs out there that pay a living wage and don’t require a traditional four year college degree. And many employers are looking for skilled trades or vocational employees with experience.
We really should have a national vocational and skilled trades accredited college-like system where you can get a national certification in a skilled trade or vocation, that allows you to be employed anywhere in the US and it’s territories, in the field you are trained for, and gives you paid apprenticeships through potential future employers, and on the job training, and does job placement to connect employers with workers who get certified through the system. There are a lot of trained and experienced skilled workers retiring, with employers needing replacements for them, in so many jobs around our country.