With that in mind, Skaneateles High School is now in its fourth year of offering a job shadowing program for junior and senior classmen.
“This is really the best program we offer,” Principal Georgette Hoskins said to members of the student body Wednesday Oct. 7.
Juniors gathered in the auditorium around 8 a.m. to listen to various speakers, which included community members, business owners and fellow classmates. Hoskins said if she could encourage the student to do one thing it is to take advantage of the shadowing program offered by the school.
Program coordinator Lori Ruhlman said the morning’s events, which included group discussions after the presentations, was not a job fair. Rather it gave the kids a chance to hear from several people in a variety of fields.
“Most people don’t have a direct path,” Ruhlman said, adding that the students should take a few minutes to really think about what they want to do and what they enjoy.
Presenters from the business community included a registered vascular nurse, an architectural engineer, a junior high science teacher, a builder/contractor who owns his own business, a software engineer and more.
“Job shadowing is really the best way to get a taste of what a job is like,” said Bill Murphy, a 1998 Skaneateles High graduate and engineer with Ramsgard Architectural Design in Skaneateles.
Murphy started working with the company when he was in high school still and it eventually led to a full-time position. Unlike Murphy, though, some of the presenters thought they knew what they wanted to be when they grew up only to change their minds when nearing the end of their college years.
Maureen Birmingham, the new seventh and eighth grade science teacher at Skaneateles, grew up in a small town south of Buffalo. When she was a junior in high school she participated in a discovery class and filled out a questionnaire related to things she might enjoy a career in.
As the list was filled with medical professions, she decided to go to school for nursing. However, when she got into her junior year of college doing rotations at Upstate Medical University she decided to switch her focus to education. But with a love of science and biology still, Birmingham was able to combine the two and teach others.
“Don’t limit yourself,” she told the group.
The shadowing program is entirely voluntary and students who are interested simply need to stop by the job shadowing office and talk to Ruhlman about the program before diving in.
While some students go off to shadow on their own, Sierra Prochna and Nick Baldwin traveled to Rochester together for their shadowing opportunity at Kodak. Baldwin said that by going together, it took the pressure off them.
According to Prochna, they both have an interest in international business and were interested to find out more about international dealings through Kodak. But, the duo learned that you don’t have to major in international business to be in the profession.
Overall the experience was a great one for Prochna and Baldwin.
“We highly recommend [job shadowing],” Baldwin said.
Kelsey Furth, a volunteer with the Skaneateles Fire Department and student at Skaneateles High School, said she began her shadowing experiences with the idea she wanted to go into the culinary arts. Instead, she went to a meeting at the firehouse and subsequently began the process of becoming a volunteer.
Furth has also shadowed police officers with the Skaneateles and Syracuse police departments and is keeping her options open.
“You don’t have to know what you want to do,” she said about taking advantage of the shadowing opportunity. “I don’t think I want to do a lot of the things I shadowed.”
