Beyond the Job Title: CAST Tech Freshmen Discover New Career Possibilities

When CAST Tech freshman Jimena Jimenez sat down with representatives from Broadway Bank, she expected to hear about careers involving money and finance. Instead, she discovered an industry with opportunities for people with a wide range of skills and interests.

“I used to just assume that it was just money-wise,” Jimena explained. But after speaking with professionals, she realized that companies need people with many different talents, not just those traditionally associated with their industry.

That discovery is exactly what CAST Tech's Industry Day is designed to inspire.

The event brought together all CAST Tech ninth graders and representatives from Accenture, Broadway Bank, Firstmark Credit Union, H-E-B, CPS Energy, Texas Biomed, and St. Mary's University for conversations about career pathways, educational requirements, internships, and the skills needed to succeed in the workplace.

“This is the first chance for the students to actually talk with industry and start learning about the different pathways that we're teaching at CAST Tech and what that looks like in the real world,” said Analisa Vasquez, CAST Tech Partnership Coordinator.

Throughout their freshman year, CAST Tech students explore three pathways: user experience (UX), cybersecurity, and business. As they prepare for sophomore year, students begin narrowing their academic focus based on their interests and career goals. Industry Day helps inform those decisions, giving students firsthand perspectives from professionals working across different fields.

For Vanessa Villarreal, Community Reinvestment Act Program Manager at Broadway Bank, those conversations are personal.

“I wish that somebody would have come and talked to me when I was in ninth grade,” she shared.

Villarreal described navigating her own career without a college degree, encountering barriers along the way, and ultimately deciding to return to school.

She hopes sharing her experience helps students recognize that there are multiple paths to success—and that career journeys don't always follow a straight line.

She also challenged students to think beyond traditional banking roles, describing opportunities in technology, design, and other departments they might not associate with a financial institution.

For CAST Tech English I teacher Melissa Quintanilla-Vasquez, Industry Day is about more than career exploration. It's also an opportunity for students to practice the professional skills they're developing in the classroom.

Students prepared questions ahead of the event, practiced introducing themselves, and engaged directly with professionals in small-group conversations. Back in the classroom, they'll reflect on how the experience connected to three essential skills: critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.

“Even seeing them today, talking, asking questions ... it's also reaffirming what we're telling them in the classroom to prep them for these types of things,” Quintanilla-Vasquez explained.

For Jimena, who entered CAST Tech with an interest in business and corporate law, the experience reinforced the importance of exploring opportunities early rather than waiting until graduation approaches.

“I need to start applying to internships, like to actually know what I want to do, so I won't be as lost during my junior and senior year,” she said.

That's the value of bringing industry into the classroom early: students don't have to wait until they're choosing a college or applying for a job to begin understanding their options. At CAST Tech, they're building the knowledge, confidence, and connections to make those choices for themselves.

Interested in helping CAST Schools students explore what's possible?

Click here to explore our partnership opportunities!