{"id":13605,"date":"2025-04-14T10:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T14:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=13605"},"modified":"2025-04-14T10:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T14:26:12","slug":"symposium-inspires-students-to-seek-support-prepare-for-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/symposium-inspires-students-to-seek-support-prepare-for-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Symposium inspires students to seek support, prepare for future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Kellam High students asked members of a celebrity panel about the life choices and challenges of their careers during the Wings of Tomorrow Symposium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Kellam High freshmen Graeson Lake speaks with Fox Sports reporter Jenny Taft.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kellam High freshmen Graeson Lake really enjoyed getting to meet Fox Sports reporter Jenny Taft during the Wings of Tomorrow Symposium.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s great, especially since she\u2019s a woman in an industry that is mostly male,\u201d Graeson said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Air Force program included several motivational speakers that students readily recognized, including social media icon McKenzi Brooke, WNBA star Sheryl Swoopes and BMX world champion Ryan Nyquist. Members of the Air Force, including Capt. Dustin \u201cC3\u201d Priaulx, also answered questions from the students about life choices and career paths.<\/p>\n

Students huddled around the celebrities for autographs and conversations between breakout sessions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Social media icon McKenzi Brooke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool to hear about the different experiences they had in life,\u201d Lake said.<\/p>\n

Freshmen Shalia Mitchell said, \u201cI liked learning about the military and what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Virginia Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau worked with ASA Entertainment Group and VBCPS to bring the free event to Kellam High. The symposium is held only 10 times a year across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Convention and Visitors Bureau is excited that the relationship developed with ASA Entertainment through our mission of generating tourism, and this led to a great opportunity to impact our residents, students and faculty,\u201d said Bill Kelly, deputy resort administrator.<\/p>\n

The celebrity speakers talked about overcoming adversity, mental wellbeing, goal setting, personal development and finding success in failure. Swoopes told students that although she started playing basketball with her older brothers when she was 7 years old, it wasn\u2019t until freshmen year of high school that she realized she wanted to work toward an athletic or academic scholarship for college.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The panel of guest speakers introduce themselves during the symposium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEven then, high school was hard,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen my friends were doing other things during their weekends, I tried to focus on what I wanted to do with my future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capt. Priaulx said he didn\u2019t know what he wanted to do when he was in high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just made sure I kept my options open,\u201d the fighter pilot said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t know what to do, it\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooke, who has millions of followers on social media, stressed the importance of mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media can be 24\/7,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I need a break, I go to the movies. It\u2019s my way to decompress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swoopes agreed that everyone should look after their wellbeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to say you\u2019re not OK,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Principal Ryan Schubart said he was thrilled to bring the event to Kellam to help students prepare to be enrolled in college or trade school, enlisted in the military or employed in a rewarding job when they graduate from high school.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
BMX world champion Ryan Nyquist signs autographs for students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kellam High freshmen Graeson Lake really enjoyed getting to meet Fox Sports reporter Jenny Taft during the Wings of Tomorrow Symposium. \u201cShe\u2019s great, especially since she\u2019s a woman in an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":13609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13605"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13622,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13605\/revisions\/13622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}