The Jr./Sr. High School College & Career Enrichment Program gives every senior several opportunities to visit a variety of job sites they find interesting or are eager to learn more about. The program also makes it possible for seniors to meet with professionals one-on-one or in small groups, which often proves to be more intimate, informative and educational.
The goal – for seniors to find a career path they are passionate about and would like to pursue. 
On January 14, two Westmoreland alums, Laura Wessing, ’11, and Alexander Lallier, ’12, met with four seniors interested in computer science and engineering at the Jr./Sr. High School. Wessing is the lead for the quantum computing/quantum algorithm software development team at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Rome. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and Master’s degree in math from SUNY Potsdam. Lallier works for Caci Inc., a large government contracting company – also in Rome – that collaborates closely with the AFRL. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in computer science from Clarkson University.
Both Wessing and Lallier talked about their career paths and what their jobs entail. Students were particularly interested in learning more about quantum, or how to program a quantum computer.
“Our focus is on working with commercially available quantum devices like IBM and Google,” Wessing, when asked about what she does at the AFRL, said. “We determine how we use them and how we program them, and how they can be utilized by the Air Force.”
“The questions the students asked us and our interactions with one another were phenomenal,” Wessing added. “You could tell they cared and wanted to be with and learn from us.”
While the students impressed Wessing and Lallier, they were also encouraged by and proud of the district’s many new offerings since they attended Westmoreland, especially courses related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). The College & Career Enrichment Program, which Wessing and Lallier raved about, did not yet exist when they were high school seniors.
“I think I was one of the only students in my class to major in computer science,” Lallier said. “When I went to college, I had never wrote a single line of code in my life. That’s no longer the case. There’s definitely a big uptick in computer science and engineering majors, and it’s exciting to come back and see more students interested in my field.”
Wessing and Lallier credit the College & Career Enrichment Program with enabling high school seniors and soon-to-be college freshmen to find their niche or discover certain fields are not the right fit. They also agree finding the right career can be a process.
Wessing started as a math education major at SUNY Potsdam, got an internship at the AFRL while still in college and, as a result, decided to drop education for strictly math and computer science – giving her the tools she needed to excel in her current job.
“A bad internship can be just as important as a good one,” Wessing chimed.
“Just before I received my degree in computer science, I had no idea what I was going to do with it,” Lallier explained. “It wasn’t until I got my internship at my current company that I knew what I wanted to do. That’s why the College & Career Enrichment Program is such a great resource.”
A few weeks after meeting them at the Jr./Sr. High School, the same four students visited Wessing and Lallier at their job sites, the AFRL and Caci Inc. The opportunity gave the students a more complete picture of what Wessing and Lallier do.
Thank you, Laura and Alexander, for spending time with and educating our students!