On Wednesday, April 19, the Upper School had a class events day. The sophomore class took the AP practice test in the morning, then in the afternoon they all attended “career conversations.” The speakers ranged from business people running Investment banks to professors at UT Arlington that specialize in special education. 

For my first “conversation,” I attended a session with Randy Eisenman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Satori Capital, a large investment firm. Eisenman is also the president of  the FWCD Board of Trustees. I mainly signed up for this session because I know Eisenman from his son, Aidan, who was in our grade K-6, and so I knew that it would be interesting to hear his story. I found it fascinating to hear his story of how he got to where he is in the business world now, the companies he built along the way, and mainly his values of what his company is based on. I really feel like I walked away and had a new perspective on another form of business.

Elizabeth Dike ’25  also learned a lot from the session with Eisenman. 

“It was very eye-opening into the business world and also interesting to see what working in private equity looks like,” Dike said.

For my second session, I listened to Todd Burnette, Managing Director in charge of the Fort Worth Office for Jones Lang LaSalle. He has been a commercial real estate broker for several years in Fort Worth. He went to SMU for college, then eventually moved to Fort Worth to start a new company. Some of his notable clients include Texas A&M University, Lockheed Martin, JP Morgan Chase, The City of Fort Worth, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and Tarrant County College. Burnette has had two children who graduated from FWCD, Isabella ‘15, and  William ‘20. 

Lastly, I went to a session with Dr. Ambra Green, Ph.D.,  who is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of Texas at Arlington. It was really interesting to hear about education from a different perspective than just an everyday teacher. It was really fascinating to hear about how she got into special education and about her passion for it. It made me appreciate her work and teachers’ work so much more. 

Carolina Zamorano ’25 also enjoyed the session. 

“It was so interesting to hear how she got into special education from different paths and how they are professors teaching it to adults now, not just using the techniques in the classrooms,” Zamorano said. 

Other professionals who participated in Career Conversations with the sophomores included:

Dr. Tiffany Wicks- licensed professional counselor and owner of Push Counseling.

Dr. Jean Hampel-  Test Development Manager for the e-learning platform Istation.

Garrett Podell- NFL Staff Writer for CBS Sports.

Elyse Stoltz Dickerson- CEO and Co-Founder of Eosera, Inc.

Elizabeth McCoy- Market Area Sales Manager for Williams Trew’s Camp Bowie, Hulen, Parker County, and Possum Kingdom locations.

Randy Eisenman- Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Satori Capital.

Reed Pigman- Founder and President of Texas Jet, Inc.

Dr. Ambra Green- Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Steve Berry – Realtor with Williams Trew a division of Ebby Halliday Real Estate, Inc.

Dr. Kirk Pinto-  Has served as Chief of Surgery at Cook Children’s and is currently the Medical Director for pediatric urology.

Todd Burnette – Managing Director in charge of the Fort Worth Office for JLL.

Dr. Efstathios Michaelides- W.A. “Tex” Moncrief, Jr. Founding Chair of Engineering at Texas Christian University.