The following is from Barbara Livingston Nackman, a Journal News staff reporter who writes the blog Book by Book at books.lohudblogs.com about book events and people in the lower Hudson Valley.

Yesterday morning tenth graders at Mahopac High School spent the first three hours of their morning hearing about career choices and grilling various professions.   I was one of them along with more than 20 other  professionals including physical therapist Josephine Carmody,  Human Resources recruiter Diana Markowitz, retired English teacher Jay Rose and architect Joel Greenberg.

I spoke to at two sessions along with former Journal News writer David McKay Wilson, who is a Mahopac parent. He is now freelancing for academic publications and The New York Times and is working on a book about whether 21 is a reasonable drinking age.

Students got right down to the nitty gritty with their questions —“How do you choose the stories you write about?” (We pitch stories that make sense to us and we think readers want);  “What is a typical day like?” (This one took a while to answer because no day is typical);  “Do you do a mix of stories like human interest and major news?” (Yes, we do to keep our sanity);  “How do you handle it when people don’t tell you the truth?” (Tough one, but we always try to use good sources)

It is no great secret that few teenagers read paper newspapers, instead getting their news from the Internet. Yahoo and Google were most mentioned — and really I figured I would hear of some under-the-radar sites, but did not.  I was surprised when some said they got the news from their parents! When I said my two sons, 24 and 22, quote Jon Stewart  more than any newscaster, they all laughed very knowingly.  There is much interest in sports reporting and all knew of LoHud.com’s Varsity Central. Some also talked about writing international news.

With so many career choices it is a wonder students ever narrow it down and focus their attention on what to do with the rest of their lives.  But it is clear, even with distractions from iPods and cell phones, they are thinking, wondering and asking questions.