Representatives from AirTran Airways, Morehouse School of Medicine, IBM, as well as Atlanta City Councilman H. Lamar Willis were just a few of the representatives that participated in Margaret Fain Elementary School’s annual career day on December 9. Held throughout the day, professionals presented their career as a potential option to students and many of them engaged in role play so they could get a better understanding of their work field. Atlanta City Councilman H. Lamar Willis told a fifth-grade class that he was the youngest person elected city-wide in Atlanta since the late Mayor Maynard Holbrook Jackson. “My commitment has always been in public service,” said Willis. “I wanted to become a lawyer and a public servant. It’s not where you start, it’s how you finish.”
Willis shared with the students how he grew up in a single parent household with two siblings and that he worked and paid bills at the age of 13. He also said he wanted to become a public servant when his family was evicted. Willis said he was watching an episode of the sitcom “Alice” about eviction and decided then he wanted to help people. “I said there must be a more humane way to treat people,” said Willis.
Willis went on to tell the students to never give up. “Vince Lombardi once said ‘Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser,’” said Willis. “What he was saying is you should never become comfortable with losing. You should look up and say ‘I will be better next time.”
Fulton County Public Defender LaRonda Martin and private investigator visited second-grade students and engaged them in a court case of why they should or should not complete their homework before watching television.
