Job-shadowing program sends students to work
Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008
BENTONVILLE - More than 700 eighth-graders went to area and out-of-state businesses Tuesday and Wednesday to take part in the Vital Link job-shadowing program.
As part of their required career-orientation class, students from Washington and Lincoln junior high schools are given the opportunity every spring to job shadow an employee or business in a field the students are interested in.
Lincoln student Asia Patterson, 14, job shadowed at All Pets Animal Hospital in Bentonville.
"Job shadowing is really cool because you get to see how things are done at work while we're in normal school hours," Patterson said. "I saw a declawing of a cat and a tumor removed from a dog. I don't know if I want to be a vet in the future, but I've always liked animals."
Veterinary offices, restaurants and health clinics are among the most popular destinations for the students, Lincoln career-orientation teacher Jennifer Bellamy said.
Students job shadow two days during school hours, write reports of their experience, then give class presentations, which Bellamy said will begin next week.
"The purpose of the class is to get them thinking about their future and to get them ready for high school," Bellamy said. "This is the best part of the year for us. It's busy, but once you talk to the students about their experiences, you can see how rewarding it is."
Orry Arnold, 13, from Lincoln Junior High School, chose to job shadow at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's fish hatchery in Centerton. Arnold said someday he wants to work for the commission as a game warden.
"I like fishing, and I'd never been there before," Arnold said. "We sampled plankton for walleye and also took a tour of the whole hatchery."
Arnold said he signed up to job shadow at the Game and Fish Commission almost three weeks ago because it sounded interesting to him.
Washington Junior High School career-orientation teacher Stephanie McDowell said she had a list of around 100 businesses that students could choose from if they didn't seek out a specific company themselves.
Some students had the opportunity to job shadow in family businesses out of state, though the large majority of the students stick to northwest Arkansas.
McDowell said Tuesday one of her students was offered a job at Chick-fil-A after one day of job shadowing.
"I'm in my fourth year with this program, and we always get positive feedback from all the businesses," McDowell said. "Many of the business owners say how they remember job shadowing when they were kids, and then they're in that business now."
McDowell said there are always a wide variety of jobs the eighth-graders choose to shadow, including jobs at different newspapers, Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.
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