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Shadow Day offers students formula to future success
Posted 6/10/2011 Updated 6/10/2011
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by Senior Airman William A. O'Brien
39th Air Base Public Affairs
6/10/2011 - INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey -- Incirlik Unit School students of all ages received a first-hand look at a variety of career fields and occupations during Shadow Day here May 20.
"Shadow Day lets our students get exposure to what a career would be like," said Ladye Daniels, IUS prekindergarten through fifth grade guidance counselor. "They go with a parent, a friend's parent or a person whose job interests them."
Shadow Day is held annually to allow prekindergarten through 12th grade students an opportunity to spend the day with someone who works on base. This year it was held as part of career week for students in grades prekindergarten through fifth grade and career day for students in grades six through twelve.
The students attended every meeting and function on the schedules of the people they were shadowing, giving them a better understanding of the skills needed to perform day-to-day tasks in that career field or occupation as well as work ethics and various other skills necessary to be successful at any job.
"They go with questions, and throughout the day, they ask the person questions to find out how they got to that point while they follow them to gain a better understanding of what they do," said Mrs. Daniels.
Shadow Day served different purposes, offering young students an opportunity to see a variety of jobs and for older students to see how what they're learning in school now can help them in the future, added the guidance counselor.
"For the younger kids, we wanted to show to them just how many jobs are out there. Generally at that age, they are only really familiar with helping professions like fire fighter, police officer, nurse, doctor and things of that nature. This shows that there are so many different jobs out there," said Mrs. Daniels. "For the older kids, they get to see that there's a journey to get to where you want to be in life and the jobs you do along the way teach you something you can use later. So with the speakers, they talked about what they've done from grade school to where they are now to get where they are."
Senior Master Sgt. Jimmy Scott, 39th Force Support Squadron Military Personnel Section superintendent, shadowed by his son Shawn Scott, showed his son some of the responsibilities of a personnelist.
"I allowed him to watch as I typed and updated personnel information in the Military Personnel Data System," said Sergeant Scott. "I also showed him the various e-mail organization accounts that I am responsible for maintaining."
Sergeant Scott felt his son got a valuable lesson from this experience.
"It gave him a better understanding of why he needs to pay attention in class and learn what is being taught," said Sergeant Scott. "If he cannot do the basics - read, write and simple mathematics - he can never perform personnel duties, at least not correctly." |
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