VCS Alumni Insights: Career Paths & Advice, Dr. Kerry Szymanski (VCS ’89) – The Power of Personal Networking
By Keith Partington, Alumni Connections, Victor Central School Educational Foundation
Personal networking at industry and peer events can be incredibly valuable for both personal and professional growth, helping to build stronger relationships. Face-to-face connections often foster deeper trust and rapport than virtual interactions, and people are more likely to support, recommend, or refer someone they know in person.
VCS Alum Dr. Kerry Szymanski is an established leader in coaching and mentoring, known for building partnerships across government, nonprofit, and academia. I connected with Kerry on LinkedIn in 2019, and her posts often showcase her master-class-level expertise in personal networking.
Thanking Kerry for offering her time and insights about the benefits of personal networking in the attached PDF.
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Victor Central School (VCS) Alumni Insights: Career Paths & Advice, Daniel Barrow, Certified Financial Planner®, Equitable Advisors (VCS ’16) – The Power of a Financial Savings Strategy
By Keith Partington, Alumni Connections, Victor Central School Educational Foundation
A savings strategy is an essential part of any career plan because it provides financial security and flexibility, serving as a form of career insurance, as important as building new skills and a wide personal network. I scanned our VCS alumni network for advice. I read a LinkedIn post from Daniel Barrow, highlighting a presentation he delivered on personal finance and investments 101 to a group of Jason Shelton’s VCS high school students, sharing important advice as they approach their post-secondary careers. As a financial professional at Equitable Advisors, Daniel Barrow offers advice and strategies to help individuals make smart choices as their lives change. He provides comprehensive life planning for finances, retirement, and all aspects of a well-lived life. We met to review ideas to share with our students and alumni community.
Daniel graduated from VCS in 2016. As a student-athlete, he appreciated the wide range of academic opportunities and played football and lacrosse, with standout team experiences culminating in an undefeated season and a New York State championship during his final 2015-2016 season. That success led him to commit to Mercyhurst University, where he continued to play lacrosse and focused on intelligence studies, with a career interest in working at the FBI or CIA. His strong aptitude for math and finance led him to transfer to the University of Tampa, where he continued to play lacrosse and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Finance. He credits an internship with Equitable Advisors in Rochester during his senior-year winter break with cementing his career interest in financial planning. He joined Equitable Advisors on December 2, 2020, and recently passed the Certified Financial Planner Exam on March 17th.
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Victor Central School (VCS) Alumni Insights: Career Paths & Advice, Dana Abramson (VCS ’81) – The Power of Developing Strong Communication Skills
Solid communication habits directly affect career opportunities, workplace success, and social satisfaction across an individual’s network of family, friends, neighbors, and work and volunteer networks. While technology continues to evolve our communication tools, a person’s reputation is built on key communication principles and skills that can be developed and improved over time.
I want to thank VCS alumna Dana Abramson for meeting to discuss the importance of developing strong communication skills, inspired by valuable insights from her LinkedIn thought leadership series, Real-world Teachers of Effective Communication. Dana, a leading expert in process development and training, has been quoted in national, regional, and local media, including For the Record, Boston Globe, Democrat and Chronicle, YNN, and the Rochester Business Journal. She is also recognized for developing processes that take complex concepts, simplify them, and deliver quantifiable results. Her signature Jump-start Executive Lead Generation System has been successfully applied across industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, management consulting, Energy & Utilities, and technology solutions, consistently producing high-response engagement that accelerates sales and marketing initiatives. She specializes in bridging the gap between marketing awareness initiatives and the deep expertise of subject matter experts — aligning strategic messaging with expert-driven insight to foster meaningful engagement, strengthen relationships on both sides of the conversation, and turn awareness into action and relationships into results.
You can read our discussion in the attached PDF file.
VCS Career Paths and Advice Dana Abramson The Power of Developing Strong Communication Skills final