Shadowing the pro's

Students take a glimpse into careers

 

 

By Colleen Cook
March 25, 2008

Academy students from across Northern Virginia had the opportunity to participate in the 10th Annual FCPS Job Shadow Day Program, on March 28. Students participating in the program were able to follow a professional in their field of study during the school day.

 

Career Experience Specialist Joan Ozdogan used partnerships with local organizations in order to offer the program to Chantilly Academy students. Along with the Northern Virginia Technology Council and FCPS, Ozdogan helped spread the word about the program.

 

“This year we had more applicants from Chantilly High School than we’ve ever had before,” Ozdogan said. “We had over 50 students who expressed interest in job shadowing, so we basically completely exhausted the numbers of opportunities.”

 

Businesses such as Freddie Mac, Verizon and Boeing all participated in the Job Shadow Day Program, taking students that were interested in following professionals around the workplace.

 

“Ms. Ozdogan came to our [English] classroom and asked if anyone was interested in participating and I did,” junior Amanda Stiefvater said.

 

Participants in the program were able to first pick a field of study they were interested in, such as accounting, business management or computer graphics. They were then matched up accordingly with an employee of a local company, who showed them a little of what work is like in particular jobs.

 

“The students completed the application, which basically pointed to their areas of interest,” Ozdogan said. “They got to say ‘Ok, I’m interested in accounting and finance’, or ‘I’m interested in architecture and engineering’, or ‘I’m interested in I.T.’. They got to rank order those.”

 

Students like junior Elisabeth Gherardini got to interact in the company and do hands-on activities at the Fairfax County Office of Management and Budget.

 

“We walked around to all the departments in the building and she explained all the jobs,” Gherardini said. “I even got to interview a couple different people for the management department.”