TULSA, Okla. — On Thursday, Booker T. Washington hosted a Career Exploration Day to allow students to speak with professionals from various different fields.
Professionals who attended included filmmakers, real estate agents, nurse practitioners, attorneys, engineers, architects, healthcare professionals and police officers. Representatives from Bank of Oklahoma, KKT Architects, Ascension, and Thunder Fellows also attended the event.
“I was honored to be invited to Booker T. Washington High School’s Career Exploration Day to talk about being a Tulsa Police Officer,” shared Matt McCord, a major with the Tulsa Police Department.
In particular, McCord said he was honored to share more about his profession with Booker T. students.
“There’s a culture of excellence here. You know, we were worried whether out kids would be able to hack it, but they bring them up to the level to be successful and it’s just hard to describe, it’s somewhat intangible. There’s a culture of excellence. The kids here move on to be successful in life. They go to college, they go on to pursue their dreams and so it’s exciting to be a part of that as somebody representing a career.”
McCord said serving as a Tulsa Police officer would be a great career that would allow Booker T. graduates to help serve and improve their community.
“[Over at] Tulsa Police Department, I’m very proud of where I work. We have a college degree requirement and so we recruit a higher caliber of officer and we hope that that reflects in our service to the community that we are educated, that we have experiences in life that make us more culturally competent to serve a diverse community that we’re proud to serve.”
The Career Exploration Day event was created by Booker T’s counseling department and college and career advisor in partnership with the Booker T. Washington Foundation for Excellence.