NYC Students Step Inside the Workplace During Career Discovery Week

Playbill has partnered with Inspired to create and amplify stories of inspiration that advocate for access to arts and cultural experiences for young people across the country. The following article is written by the team at Situation Project and adapted from their online publication Inspired. Click here to learn more.

For many young people, especially in a city as large and segmented as New York, exposure to careers often begins and ends with what they see in their immediate surroundings—family members, neighbors, or jobs that feel visible and accessible. Entire industries can remain abstract, even when they are geographically close.

Career Discovery Week, a joint initiative between the Partnership for New York City and New York City Public Schools, is designed to shift that. Since launching in 2020, more than 280 employers have opened their doors to over 14,000 public high school students, offering a closer look at what different workplaces actually do and how people find their way into them.

Across one week, more than 4,000 students visit offices, studios, and organizations across the city. They meet professionals, ask questions, and begin to map out possibilities that might not have felt visible before.

The barrier isn’t only about access to jobs, it’s about access to knowledge: what roles exist., how people get there, and which skills most immediately translate from school to the workforce.

A Day Inside Marketing

As one of more than 150 participating employers, Situation Project welcomed 30 students from the International High School at Lafayette, a school where all students are English language learners, to their office at Situation Group. The day was structured to balance information with interaction, giving students both context and space to experiment.

The session began with a foundational question: what is marketing? From there, students explored how campaigns are built, how audiences are considered, and how storytelling shapes the way people engage with brands and ideas.

A panel of Situation Group staff followed, offering a behind-the-scenes look at their own career paths. The conversation was candid and specific, covering early job searches, unexpected pivots, and the realities of entering a competitive field. Students asked questions about everything from college majors to interview tips, listening closely to answers that reflected real experience rather than polished summaries.

The day shifted again when students moved into their own creative work. Divided into small groups, they developed original advertisements, drawing on what they had just learned and their own instincts about what captures attention. The room filled with conversation—students debating ideas, sketching concepts, testing language.

Students Finding Their Voice

For the students from the International High School at Lafayette, the experience was not just about learning new content but about using language—both creatively and professionally—in a new setting.

Presenting in front of peers and professionals requires a different kind of confidence, especially when English is still something you are actively learning. The shift from listening to speaking, from observing to leading, is not always easy.

And yet, it happened organically throughout the day.

“I got to come to Situation Group last year, and we had such a great time, I picked this for my career site again this year,” one returning student said, pointing to the impact of consistency and familiarity in building comfort over time.

That return matters. It signals that the experience resonates enough for students to seek it out again, to deepen their understanding rather than starting from scratch.

From the perspective of the school, that impact is visible.

“Thank you for creating such an engaging and enjoyable learning experience for our students,” said a school counselor from the International High School at Lafayette. “We deeply appreciate your time, dedication, and the patience and support your team consistently shows to our students.”

For the staff participating in the day, the exchange runs both ways.

“We’ve participated in Career Discovery Week for the past three years and it is an incredible opportunity to lean into our mentality of ‘if you can see it, you can be it,’” said Samara Berger, Executive Director of Situation Project. “Our staff love providing a space for joint learning. We learn just as much from the students as they do from us. Probably more.”

What It Means to See Yourself There

Career exploration is often framed as a single moment—a visit, a workshop, a conversation—but its impact builds over time. It grows through repetition, through seeing the same space twice, through recognizing that you belong in a room that once felt unfamiliar.

For students who are learning English while also preparing for their futures, that process includes an added layer of translation. Programs like Career Discovery Week don’t remove that complexity, but they create space to work within it, to practice and refine in a setting that invites participation.

What stands out is not only the information shared but the shift in posture. Students move from listening to contributing, from asking what marketing is to demonstrating how they would approach it. They begin to connect their own perspectives to professional contexts, seeing how their ideas carry value.

When that happens, the idea of a career becomes less distant. It becomes something to build toward, piece by piece.

Returning, Building, Moving Forward

As the students left the office, conversations continued—about the advertisements they created, about the panel, about what surprised them. Some compared notes. Others talked about what they might do differently next time.

The return of students from the previous year suggests that the experience doesn’t end when the day does. It stays with them, shaping how they think about their options and where they see themselves fitting in.

Back in the classroom, those ideas will continue to evolve. For some, this may be the first time they have connected creativity with a career path like marketing. For others, it may be a step toward something they are already beginning to imagine.

Either way, they have stood at the front of the room and shared their ideas. They have seen how those ideas create catalysts.

That’s a place to start.

To learn more about Career Discovery Week, visit pfnyc.org/career-discovery-week. To learn more about Situation Project, visit www.situationproject.org. To learn more about Inspired and Situation Project, visit inspired.situation.ly.