Yehuda Levy, who is pre-law and majoring in Psychology and attended the pre-law and psychology alumni dinner last month, said that it was very helpful to have people willing to talk straight about their industry.

“Everyone was very open,” Levy said. “I could ask them about salaries and stuff like that that you want to know that you can’t talk about with most people.” Levy, who is from Toronto, said he would benefit from being able to network at another alumni dinner this year.

Before you know it, these students will be back, standing on the opposite side of the table, regaling a new crop of students about the trials of success and the intricacies of their particular field.

Aryeh Young, Director of Alumni Affairs, organized the events and here’s what he has to say:

One of this year’s primary goals in expanding the role of the LCM Alumni Council, was not only to better serve our alumni, but also to use our alumni to help serve our current students. With the help of several student leaders, the Alumni Council teamed with the LCM Student Government to run a series of dinners in which students could get career advice from successful alumni in their fields. Students and alumni met together in the Fourth Floor Conference Room for a long evening of informal questions, discussions and advice-seeking. Seven different alumni-student dinners were organized, focusing on the fields of Finance and Accounting, Pre-Dent, Pre-Med, Pre-Law, Pre-Physical Therapy, Psychology and Computers.

At each dinner, I introduced the program by pointing out that in today’s world, each industry or field of study can change rapidly even over one decade. Although it can be helpful to speak to our parents or their peers who are successful lawyers, doctors, etc., their experiences may be very different from those that today’s graduates will encounter. By speaking to recent alumni, our students not only received a variety of up-to-date perspectives in each discipline, but they also spoke to those who still have fresh memories of applying for their first jobs and graduate schools, creating their resumes, taking the M-CAT’s,  etc. In some ways, the best people to turn to for advice are those who are only a few steps ahead of you and can easily relate to your current challenges and obstacles.

Students are currently filling out “post-event surveys” to help determine how to better improve the structure of this program for next year, and thus far, we have received incredible feedback from students and alumni alike, testifying to the incredible helpfulness of this first-year program. Some even suggested running the program biannually!

On behalf of the 100+ students that participated, I would like to thank the following alumni for agreeing to share their valuable time and insights:  Lee Gherman, Daniel Fruchter, Gabe Hershman, Doc Goldstein, Abraham Klepfish, Baruch Berzon, Noam Lax, David Hersch, Josh Lipschitz, Yehuda Schochet, Sruli Bomzer, Elie Cohen, Ari Lasker, Yitz Moshel, Elie Norowitz, Avi Horowitz, Eli Sinnreich, Josh Sarner, Aryeh Shapiro, Danny Lewisohn, Israel Anteby, Sochi Hornung, Jason Appleson, David Manheim and Gershon Firesteone.