Networking Lunches Build Professional Skills, Relationships

September 24, 2026

Author: Christa Rooks

During this past season’s Summer Career Institute, our Education and Career Resources Department hosted three networking lunches for our young people to help them prepare for college and the workforce. Youth dressed in their best business attire to meet and network with volunteers from several Chicago-area companies.

“The overall purpose of the networking lunch is to give youth the opportunity to learn about the power and purpose of building professional relationships,” Mercy Home’s Vice President of Education and Career Resources Liz Kuhn Tomka said. “In order to understand that they need to practice what their networking skills are and how to build up those conversations. We want them to be able to walk into a room and meet with somebody who is a stranger that could potentially benefit them one day in a professional relationship.”

For most of the Summer Career Institute program, our young people traveled to various organizations for site visits, including Google, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox. But for the networking lunches, our partners came to our young people.

Each lunch began with the group completing bingo cards by asking others questions about their backgrounds and interests. This gave youth the opportunity to practice meeting a complete stranger and starting conversations. Then over a meal, our young people were able to share their career goals and chat with our volunteers. These conversations led to some great connections.

Major, one of the youth who attended the networking lunch, has an interest in a career in construction. She was able to meet volunteer Sheila Urban, a general contractor who oversees job sites and hires various subcontractors. Urban recommended a program specifically for women in trades.

“I just finished my carpenter pre-apprenticeship, so I think that meeting her was like a godsend,” Major said. 

She added that events like these at Mercy Home have helped her work toward her long-term career goals. 

“I’m always trying to find new people to talk to [and] connect with,” she said. “I think this was a great event to do that. Especially at my age, considering that I’m still in school but I’m also an adult working toward [goals]. I think getting opportunities to meet different people I can connect with later on is something that was really helpful.”

The volunteers represented many diverse professions, including engineering, healthcare, and finance, to name a few. This made the event a valuable opportunity for our young people to learn about and explore various career options while also practicing their elevator pitches and communication skills with supportive listeners.

In addition to benefiting our young people, it also gave our volunteers an opportunity to interact with and get to know our young people a bit more, and to support their career goals. 

Lauren Krieg from the Patrick and Anna M. Cudahy Fund was one of the volunteers who especially enjoyed getting to know the participants.

“It’s always nice to talk to the young people and hear how Mercy Home is helping them reach their goals, as well as about all the programs available to them like this one,” she said. “It’s inspiring to talk to them and hear what their dreams are.”

Laura-Lee and Steve Schwefel, who also volunteered, said that seeing the work being done at Mercy Home inspires them to continue providing support. 

“You see firsthand what’s happening here and why it’s so important,” Laura-Lee Schwefel said. “I wish every young person had this level of support.”

Steve Schwefel was able to make a connection with one youth over their shared love of basketball. From there, the conversation flowed easily. 

“It takes a little while to warm up, to find the connection,” he said. “But the quicker you can find the connection, the quicker you can see their demeanor change.”

Gabe Avalos, the Home’s senior coordinator of post-secondary options and career resources, said that the volunteers taking time from their busy workdays to help our youth was both meaningful and appreciated. 

“They were able to impart some wisdom about skills and lived experience to help our youth navigate interviewing processes and meet new people,” he said. “Most importantly, they showed our youth the importance of giving back to our communities.”

The day after the final networking lunch, our ECR team wrapped up this year’s Summer Career Institute with a Recognition and Celebration event in the multipurpose room, where our coworkers and young people reflected on the program and what they learned over the previous four weeks. The youth received awards for achievements like perfect attendance and top performance.

“SCI gave our youth a small glimpse of the professional world,” Avalos said. “Some of the site visits had the youth in corporate offices and some had them wearing hardhats at trade site visits. All the site visit partners were willing to talk about their career paths [and] answer all the youths’ questions. … I know the PSO team and I really did enjoy seeing how each of the youth grew this past summer.”

A big thank you to our ECR team for making this year’s Summer Career Institute such a success! 

We also wish to thank volunteers from the Grace Roberti Foundation, the Patrick and Anna M. Cudahy Fund, ComEd, Kodiak Solutions, HBK Engineering, One Digital, Faegre Drinker, Valley Bank, SHEcon, BlackRock, Marsh, AArete, and Robert Half, as well as our board members, who took the time to attend our networking lunches and meet with our youth.