Rather than a cast for a comedy, it's Redwood Middle School Career Week, during which representatives from a wide variety of professions share their stories with students.

Redwood held this year's Career Week Feb. 10­14, kicking it off with an assembly on Feb. 7. Each homeroom had two speakers throughout the week, ranging from a gemologist to an interior designer to a journalist to a travel agent.

Some speakers maintained students' interest by preparing interactive activities and photographic presentations and brought accessories that represented their jobs.

Saratoga resident Becky Smith-Coggins spoke about her profession, as an ER doctor at Stanford Hospital. Smith-Coggins showed a slide presentation of her coworkers while discussing the road that she had taken to earn her degree. Smith-Coggins also used a student as her "patient," shaping plaster to make a cast.

Smith-Coggins says she realizes the goal of the event is not necessarily to make middle schoolers choose a profession early on but for them to start asking questions of themselves about their future.

"It's valuable for the kids just to get them thinking in different directions," Smith-Coggins said. "And for me, it's just fun. I enjoy doing it. The kids' questions just tickle me."

After the week, Smith-Coggins says, Redwood parents told her that their children had talked about the doctor who'd put a cast on one of their classmates.

Tiger Teerlink, a Saratoga resident, says his three days with the students "was awesome. I just love the kids. At that age they're smart; they're asking the right questions." Teerlink told the classes about his background and how he had gone through careers in law and high tech before becoming a Realtor.

Teerlink says he encouraged the students to work hard in school and choose a career that they love. The students, in turn, eagerly asked questions and spoke about their own future aspirations.

Eighth-grader Devi Narasinhan says the experience opened her eyes to the diversity of professions. "You normally don't get to hear about these kind of careers," Narasinhan said. In Narasinhan's homeroom, a minister and a travel agent talked about their experiences. The travel agent especially had interesting stories to tell, Narasinhan says.

Narasinhan said, however, "It really didn't influence me because I don't really know what I want." Among Narasinhan's career options are becoming a chef, a lawyer or an interior designer.

Nate Coggins, Smith-Coggins' son, says the most interesting speaker in his class was his own teacher, Brian Senior. While the class had hosted a computer expert and a piano teacher, Coggins says, Senior brought in his turntable one day and shared with his students his experiences as a DJ in college.

"He was showing us how to scratch and everything," said Coggins, a seventh-grader. "After my teacher came in, I thought that whole DJing thing was pretty cool."

According to Assistant Principal Beth Polito, Redwood has put on this event for several years "to create a connection between schools and careers—there actually needs to be a reason to do what you're doing in school."

Through the efforts of a PTA parent committee, led by Suzanne Sullivan, 65 to 70 speakers were recruited for the entire week. "The parent committee did 99 percent of the work," Polito said.