Networking Lunches Serve Career Prep 

August 20, 2025

Mercy Home’s Summer Career Institute program recently hosted networking lunches for our young men as they prepare to enter college and the workforce. 

Participants put on their sharpest business attire for their meet-and-greets with corporate sponsors, Mercy Home board members, and coworkers. 

According to Liz Kuhn Tomka, vice president of education and career resources, the lunches were intended to teach youth about the power and purpose of building professional relationships. 

“In order to understand that they need to practice what their networking skills are and how to build up those conversations,” Tomka said. “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.” 

Throughout the summer, the young men have attended site visits to numerous companies and organizations, including the Chicago Blackhawks, Mid-Lakes Distributing and Google. But for the networking lunches, Mercy Home’s corporate partners came to them. 

“Our overall focus is around career exposure and job skills,” Tomka said. “But each youth has individual goals and skills that they are working on as well. So, for one youth, they might take to the site visits because they want to figure out their future college major or career while another youth could be focusing on their social skills with their peers as well as with adults.” 

Before participants enjoyed lunch, they were tasked to complete bingo cards by asking others questions about their background. This gave them the opportunity to practice their handshake and how to break the ice when meeting a complete stranger. 

“I was able to meet people that I didn’t even know that their job existed,” Josh, a young man living at the Home, said. “I met two people in the finance department so they can help me out with my business in the future.” 

Volunteers represented diverse professions that included business, finance, and law among others. That made the event a valuable opportunity for our young men to learn about career options while also practicing their elevator pitches to a supportive audience. 

“I learned that it’s ok to be nervous when you’re meeting new people,” Erik, a young man who plans to work in finance or banking, said. “Every person is human and having a conversation is fine.” 

Mercy Home’s youth come from diverse cultural backgrounds and don’t always have conversations with people who look different from them. So while talking to someone from a different background might be difficult at first, the networking lunch created a safe opportunity to practice those skills.   

I learned that it’s ok to be nervous when you’re meeting new people.

Erik, Mercy Home youth

“It’s also about giving them confidence to meet somebody who is older than them,” Tomka said. “A lot of them are working on some of their prosocial skills and building healthy relationships.” 

In addition to benefiting our uoung people, the lunches also gave donors and corporate sponsors opportunities to interact with Mercy Home’s young people. Robert Half Expert Talent Manager and Recruiter Mark Ternstrom said that he wanted to meet a lot of the young people and offer some advice from his own career experience. 

“I have done stuff like this before, but more so with adults,” Ternstrom said. “This is different. This is more heartfelt. It really did feel good.” 

After enjoying sandwiches, the young people said their goodbyes and completed their reflections about what they want to continue working on. 

“All of them were really well engaged, really put themselves out there and were brave in that way,” Tomka said. “They were able to walk into a room, be paired with somebody they have never met and had a conversation. I would consider that a success.” 

Thank you to Valley Bank, BlackRock, ComEd, Nancy Temple, Robert Half, Corboy and Demetrio, Faegre Drinker, and Water Saver for volunteering time to be with our young men.