Fifty-five high school seniors spent a day on the job Feb. 2 as they took advantage of the inaugural Job Shadow Day, which was organized by Morgan Hill Unified School District and the Chamber of Commerce.
Eleven local businesses, in the fields of health and wellness, insurance, manufacturing and shipping, technology and government, participated in the new event.
“Our goal was to create a small pilot of the day with the intention of growing it exponentially over the next few years,” said Heather Nursement, MHUSD’s Director of Supplemental Programs. “Our Job Shadow Day gave (Career Technical Education) students a first-hand look at the industries they are interested in entering into after high school.”
National Job Shadow Day (held annually on Groundhog Day) is a nationwide initiative that encourages businesses to provide job shadowing experience for high school students. The goal is to inspire the next generation of professionals to pursue a career in anything from construction and manufacturing to hospitality and health and wellness.
“The day will leave a big impact on our students,” Nursement said.
Students and CTE teachers worked together to identify the industry most closely related to their intended career path. Students were then tasked with researching the business they were shadowing and taken through a training on how to behave in the workplace before they were deployed to their sites.
“Remembering back to high school and thinking about how much an opportunity like this would have meant to me as a student, we couldn’t pass up this opportunity,” said Adilene Sanchez, resource coordinator at Bella Terra, EAH Housing. “We had a great group of students and are excited to participate again next year.”
The inaugural event in Morgan Hill was also a way to create public awareness of the hard work and economic contributions that local businesses make in our community, according to the district’s Feb. 8 press release.
“This is a great opportunity for our local businesses to open their doors to provide Morgan Hill students widely-sought exposure to the working world and invaluable industry insight,” said John Horner, Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce Executive Director.
Participating businesses were: Ram Commercial Insurance, Pure Skin & Body Massage, City of Morgan Hill, Morgan Hill Recreation, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, Aircraft Covers, Creative Manufacturing Solutions, Cherisse’s Hair Salon, Signtech-Postal Stop, EAH Housing, and Morgan Hill Unified School District.
“The majority of these students are looking to go into the industry they visited,” Horner added. “This not only gave students the chance to see the industry at work, but it benefited the businesses by giving them the chance to get to know potential job seekers.”
MHUSD and the Chamber have already begun plans for next year’s Job Shadow Day. Interested businesses should contact Heather Nursement at (408) 201-6075 or
nu********@mh***.org
.
