GMS eighth graders check out career options during annual shadowing day

Sarah Ein­se­len — Staff

Rachel Greene, 14, lis­tens for a dog’s heart­beat with the help of vet­eri­nar­ian Stephanie Parr. Greene was par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Galion Mid­dle School’s annual job shad­ow­ing day Fri­day, Feb. 3.

By Sarah Einselen

Inquirer Reporter

Over a hun­dred eighth grade stu­dents at Galion Mid­dle School spent Fri­day, Feb. 4, shad­ow­ing employ­ees at a host of area busi­nesses, explor­ing what life is like in the pro­fes­sion they might pur­sue after high school.

Some of the stu­dents are already sure of what they want to do.

“Sci­ence just seemed like it was think­ing out­side of the box,” said 13-year-old Chero­kee Aller, who wants to become a middle-school sci­ence teacher. “I like think­ing out­side the box.” Chero­kee shad­owed Galion Inter­me­di­ate School sci­ence teacher Sue Jarvis and helped her teach the class peri­ods about sed­i­men­tary, igneous and meta­mor­phic rocks. She decided in fifth grade that she’d like to teach sci­ence, but thinks older chil­dren would be eas­ier to handle.

“These guys, they’re a lit­tle hyper,” she said of the inter­me­di­ate stu­dents she helped teach. “By mid­dle school they calm down and stop play­ing with their pencils.”

That’s about the only thing that sur­prised her on Fri­day, she said—“that they’re not always pay­ing attention.”

Just up the road, 14-year-old Rachel Greene shad­owed vet­eri­nar­ian Stephanie Parr at the Galion Vet­eri­nary Clinic for the day.

“I can’t remem­ber a spe­cific time when I decided I wanted to go be a vet­eri­nar­ian,” Rachel said. “I think it just grad­u­ally hap­pened.” She grew up with pets at home. Her par­ents, both col­lege grads, have encour­aged her to go to col­lege after high school, too.

Rachel con­sid­ered a career in music at one point, “but the more I thought about it the more I real­ized that might not work.”

Parr, who opened her office in Galion in 2007, has hosted a middle-school shad­ower since 2008.

“The nature of vet­eri­nary med­i­cine is very much a teach­ing pro­fes­sion,” Parr said. “I just enjoy get­ting to share the pro­fes­sion.” She hosts about three stu­dents per year, either from the mid­dle school, the high school or from area col­leges. “It allows some­one who thinks they want to go into this field to see the good and the bad,” she said.

“I’ve got­ten to see what’s wrong with the ani­mal and what med­ica­tions are needed,” Rachel said. She wit­nessed appoint­ments and surg­eries dur­ing her shad­ow­ing expe­ri­ence, but didn’t run into many sur­prises. “It’s kind of what I expected it to be,” she said.

That isn’t always the case.

“In the 24 years that I have been orga­niz­ing Shad­ow­ing Day, many stu­dents have returned both excited and dis­ap­pointed,” said mid­dle school guid­ance coun­selor Joy­lyn Finch. “Either way it’s a good expe­ri­ence because they gain valu­able infor­ma­tion for plan­ning course work for high school and beyond.”

Stu­dents were assigned a report in Eng­lish recap­ping their shad­ow­ing expe­ri­ence. The eighth-graders at GMS have already taken two career inter­est sur­veys, Finch said, to help them start think­ing about what might be the right career track for them.

The school pro­vides a class called 21st Cen­tury Skills deal­ing mainly with col­lege and career readi­ness, too. Finch has also vis­ited other eighth grade classes sev­eral times this year to talk about careers.

“For the most part, I believe that most eighth graders have an idea about what they might want to do, as an adult, but they have no idea what type of edu­ca­tion or train­ing is nec­es­sary,” she said. “This is why job shad­ow­ing can be a great expe­ri­ence for the students.”

Rachel’s one stu­dent who fol­lowed through on research­ing her intended career path.

“I’m think­ing maybe I’ll get my Bachelor’s first and then try to apply to a vet­eri­nary school,” she said. Much of what she’s read has said a stu­dent has to get good grades both in high school and col­lege to be accepted into a vet school.

“I have to be pre­pared for a lot of hard work if I want to get into vet­eri­nary school,” said Rachel. “I can’t just slack off.”

The shad­ow­ing day was the last career activ­ity before ninth grade class scheduling.

Posted by Sarah Einselen on Feb 8 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.