NBC 5 Meteorologist Ginger Zee visits Mount Carmel

Chicago – On Friday, April 11, NBC Meteorologist Ginger Zee visited Mount Carmel High School and addressed the students in the Geography classes.  Her presentation, Meteorology as a Career, centered around shared life experiences and her career as a Meteorologist.  Social Studies teacher Mr. Tim Fischer organized the presentation.

“I thought the presentation was interesting from the standpoint that Gingershowed how valuable her education is to her line of work.  Somestudents think she appears on the news for 3 minutes a day and her job is easy, butshe really had to take some difficult courses to be able to understand andresearch her work,” said Fischer.

The theme of education and hard work did not go unnoticed by the students as many of them asked questions about her experience in college at the end of her presentation.  “It takes an incredible amount of hard work to achieve the things that she has at such a young age,” stated freshman Jamie Manriquez.

She also shared stories of adversity in trying to find an internship during college to make her career in television take off.  “I sent out a hundred resumes, and I did not hear back from any of the networks, then I received a call from a station in Birmingham, Alabama.  I was 18 years old and doing an internship at the Fox station in Birmingham.” 

She also shared stories of rigorous course work in college taking classes such as calculus and physics.  Upon graduating from college she shared her experiences of trying to get a position as a Meteorologist on a television network and having to enter radio instead.  Again, conveying a lesson to the students she mentioned that while she was not working at a television network she did learn from working in Radio.  “ I learned brevity working in radio, and that is important in our field.”

The most valuable lesson she brought to the freshman that had the opportunity to hear her speak was a message of perseverance.  She stressed believing in yourself, pursuing your dreams, and strengthening the things that you love. 

A good portion of the presentation also focused on using subject matter in real life such as math and science.  Relating life experiences of her own she encouraged the young men to pursue their dreams and continue to grow in subjects that they enjoy. “I loved science and math, and I excelled in these disciplines.  Do not be afraid to do what you love, you can have a career doing what you love.”

The presentation concluded on a technical side as she shared the typical workday with the students.  Expressing, in some amazement to the young men, then she gets up at 2:30 a.m.  She also explained to them the technicalities of her job and forecasting the weather.  She outlined the steps of using formulas, climatology, surface observation, and examining the atmosphere in helping her to determine what the weather patterns are going to be for the next two or three days.  Through defining terms such as jet stream, her presentation created a curiosity in the students and it is sure that they will all understand the weather segment of the news a little better that they had in the past.