Last month, nine Newark High School seniors who participated this last year in the Future Women Leaders of Wayne County leadership and career program visited some successful business ventures in Chicago where women from diverse backgrounds hold leadership positions in hopes of helping the NHS students clarify future career choices.
To view the deigned article, visit: https://5il.co/3nu40
It also included their visiting some cultural points of interest and popular tourist sites while in the Windy City.
Students on the trip included: Kalyn Norton, AveΜ Ellis, Marguerite Lynch, Aryel Orlopp, Jade Stoner, Hailey DeMeyer, Armani Sanders, Naomi Rivera-Romero and Sakurako Weigand.
They visited: Belvedere Trading, LLC, renowned for their market analysis and prediction software, three of Lettuce Entertain Youβs flagship restaurant/event spaces and RPM Italian, RPM Steak, and RPM Seafood to learn about the hospitality industry.
The students received an unexpected tour of the University of Chicagoβs Athletic Complex during a brief visit of the UChicago campus; visited Conagra Brands foods; toured parts of Chicago in, of all things, kayaks; enjoyed an evening of delicious dining and entertainment at Andyβs Jazz Club; and did sightseeing and shopping in Chinatown during their final day in Chicago.
The culminating, six-day trip for the weekly afterschool program was planned by student participants earlier this year and approved for grant funding by the Newark Board of Education.
Scott Wager, Co-Founder & CEO of the Canandaigua-based Expeditions of Empowerment Inc. organization that provides weekly afterschool instruction along with EOE colleague Janean Shedd and EOE Co-Founder and Program Advisor Danielle Ohlson who is married to Wager and teaches English and Multi-Cultural studies at NHS accompanied students on their filed trip.
Shedd, Ohlson and Wager recently shared their perspectives on student takeaways from the field trip:
Shedd: βWhatever they want to pursue, whether common, niche or male dominated, is within reach if they are passionate about it.β
Ohlson: βThere are so many different pathways/opportunities, often different than what we have envisioned for ourselves, and if you are courageous enough to step into something new, seeking to learn, you can go so much further than imagined.β
Wager: βThey can be confident in their ability to navigate new spaces, new conversations, and new perspectives, because they did it every single day.
And here are a few comments from the students a month after their trip:
Stoner- βThe most impactful for me was the Pastry Chef, Annieβs story, because it showed that if you believe in yourself, and put yourself first, you can achieve your dream _ even if youβve had a difficult childhood.
Sanders - I get it now, why networking is so important, all of their opportunities came from those connections.
Orlopp- I really connected with the women through their personal stories, which were all so different. It just shows there is no one way.
Finally, youβll want to take time during these warm summer days to read the following interesting accounts of the trip written by Wager and Shedd and see that students learned A LOT more than maybe even they expected on their trip that began and ended with long and tiring train rides to and from Chicago.
Enjoy! Wagerβs article: https://expeditionsofempowerment.org/2025/08/future-women-leaders-chicago-expedition-2025/ Sheddβs article: https://expeditionsofempowerment.org/2025/08/janeans-chicago-report/