For their podcast, 2 elementary school students ask adults why they chose their jobs

+ National For their podcast, 2 elementary school students ask adults why they chose their jobs September 24, 20264:42 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition By Lauren Migaki , Janet W.

+ Lee For their podcast, 2 elementary school students ask adults why they chose their jobs Listen &middot; 3:47 3:47 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5968589/nx-s1-9938499" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Kids are used to being asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Two students in Columbus, Ohio, flipped the script to ask grown-ups why they chose their careers. Sponsor Message Transcript LEILA FADEL, HOST: Here's an age-old question.

+ (SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "CAREERS KIDS CONSIDER") ABIGAIL STETTLER: What do you want to be when you grow up? A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: Ooh, I know what I want to be. Leila Fadel's best friend. FADEL: (Laughter) We're working on it. MARTÍNEZ: All right. FADEL: Abigail Stettler and Zoey Nolan tackled that question as student journalists at Barrington Elementary School in Columbus, Ohio. (SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "CAREERS KIDS CONSIDER") ZOEY NOLAN: Hi. This is... ABIGAIL: The Careers Kids Consider. I'm Abigail. ZOEY: And this is Zoey. ABIGAIL: We are fifth graders who want to know more about what it's like to be adults. ZOEY: We thought we would start with jobs. FADEL: Their podcast is a finalist in NPR's Student Podcast Challenge. (SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "CAREERS KIDS CONSIDER") ABIGAIL: We went to interview some adults about the jobs they already have. ZOEY: Here's Principal Cooper, a principal at Barrington Elementary, answering our first question. ABIGAIL: Why did you choose this career? NICHOLE COOPER: I love helping schools be the best places that they can be for students, teachers and families. ABIGAIL: Now we're here with Dr. Stettler, a pediatrician at Nationwide Children's Hospital. ZOEY: What's the most memorable thing you have ever done during your career? It can be grossest, it can be coolest. It can be, like, a scientific breakthrough or anything. KIMBERLY STETTLER: That would probably have been when I was still working in the hospital. I had a patient who came in who was very, very sick. He needed a lot of medical care, day in, day out, hours and hours and hours of time. Eventually he got to go home. A few years passed by, and I was out at a playground with my own kids and I actually ran in to this kid's mom. He was actually there, playing on the playground. And so it was kind of a really cool, full circle moment where I got to see all that time and work and worry that went into caring for him and getting him better. And how that really changed the trajectory of his life and really kind of helped drive what I do every day to try to help every kid I work with every day have a better future by giving them good care. ZOEY: That was great. ABIGAIL: Thank you, Dr. Stettler. Next up, we have Dr. Parker, an OSU professor for veterinary medicine. ZOEY: If you met a kid who really wanted this job, what advice would you have to them? VALERIE PARKER: It's important to remember a few things. You have to work a lot with people, not just animals. So being a doctor for animals who can't speak means that you have to speak to their pet owners and their handlers. You have to enjoy working with people almost as much as you enjoy working with animals. I think it's also important to just get experience in different fields of veterinary medicine. It might mean when you're young, starting out by volunteering at an animal shelter, if you can. It might mean as you get a little older working for a veterinary clinic. It might mean participating in a research study and helping collect data. It is also important that you work really hard in school. Unfortunately, it is a competitive field, and so students who want to be veterinarians have to work hard, get good grades and be willing to put themselves out of their comfort zone. It's a long process of training, so it's for people who are dedicated and willing to work really hard. ZOEY: Thank you, Dr. Parker. ABIGAIL: All of these careers are great, and there is no one best career. ZOEY: We hope this helped you choose your career, or consider the one you have in a different way. ZOEY NOLAN AND ABIGAIL STETTLER: Thank you for listening. FADEL: Abigail Stettler and Zoey Nolan, interviewing principal Nichole Cooper, pediatrician Kim Stettler and veterinarian Valerie Parker. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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