“Job shadowing is an opportunity for students who are juniors and seniors who are in a good standing – good standing meaning grades, attendance, and behavior – to apply for the program to go out to a work place for a portion of a work day to shadow workplace mentors,” Lisa Edelson, job shadowing program supervisor, said.

Applying for a job shadow is as easy as e-mailing the right person. Edelson sends emails and reaches out to the students of District 219 to grab one of their many opportunities for a successful future.

Edelson talks about how fortunate students are in this decade by letting us know how applications for job shadowing is done.

“Well, before Google and before a lot of the good technology, I had students write them to me. Over the years, it slowly transitioned into applying online and now, it became something a lot less time-consuming and beneficial for students these past couple of years,” she said.

With the prosperous development of technology, we have seen how it was more fortunate to be a high school student in the past years than it was during before Google was created.

“I think one of the many reasons why students don’t apply is because they’re fearful,” Edelson said concerning students who don’t engage themselves in the program.

Fearful meaning things like, ‘”I’ve never met these people before”, “What if I don’t like the workplace?”, or “I don’t know what to expect”. But when students get themselves into it, they realize that it wasn’t such a nerve wracking experience after all.

“There are many benefits in doing this program. One is to be able to get the opportunity to meet an adult professional in the field of studies that you wish to pursue in the future,” Edelson said.

If you are interested in taking a step closer to a brighter future, don’t hesitate to respond to Mrs. Edelson’s day-to-day email updates for the job shadowing, or you can reach out to her at [email protected].

There are many more beneficial reasons for joining the job shadowing programs, but it all depends on your experience with it.