Thirty-eight Frenship High School juniors and seniors enrolled in Career and Technical Education courses explored potential career opportunities through job shadowing this week. This is the fifth year Frenship has held Job Shadow Day, allowing students to connect with professionals and experience a day as a part of the real world workforce.
Some of the locations included, Gerwig Dental, the Wolfforth Police Department, Walgreens Pharmacies, Slate Group, BH Drafting, Texas Tech University, and even Frenship’s Casey Administration Building.
Students were allowed to work with local architects, networking specialists, healthcare providers, and even the District Attorney. Two students were able to observe kidney surgery, one other was able to produce and record a radio spot, and a few toured the Allied Health simulations at South Plains College.
Trey Laverty, Director of Sales Development at Slate Group, worked with his job shadow student Hein. He said that Hein came in and spoke about how he was interested in creating logos for gaming comapnies.
"Monday was International Women’s Day so we had Hein create a design for the day utilizing the EQNX’s, an international gaming company's branding and logo," Laverty said. "Hein met with our entire design team to learn different perspectives on how everyone starts a new project and he asked a lot of detailed questions. He jumped into the project and created a great design that was even shared with the team at EQNX."
Laverty said his team gave Hein lots of feedback to help him grow and prepare him for his future.
"We appreciate the opportunity to be a part of a program like this," Laverty said. "Growing up in a small West Texas town, I didn’t have that opportunity, and I’m excited that we can be a part of a program like this to inspire a new career possibility."
Blake Hayes is the owner of BH Drafting, a residential and architectural design firm in Lubbock. He hosted three Frenship students and said he was impressed by the passion they displayed.
"The students learned how to start the process of creating a custom home for our clients and looked at some drawings of a particular home that we had done,” Hayes said. “They learned about the various drawings that are done to complete a construction drawing set for the builder to be able to build the home. They got to take a field trip to the actual home and observe how the drawings translated into real construction.”
Hayes said that the students asked great questions and seemed to absorb the things he was teaching them. He said he believes opportunities like this are valuable for high school students.
“They can look into a potential field and see if it is something that they can see themselves enjoying before they make the big leap,” Hayes said. “Having knowledge of a field and some experience can go a long way in the development of their craft when pursuing their dream in that particular field.”
Sarah Self-Walbrick is a senior reporter at Texas Tech Public Media, Lubbock’s National Public Radio station. She asked her job shadow student, Kade, to come prepared with an idea for a story.
“We produced a one-minute news spot that included angles Kade was specifically interested in,” Self-Walbrick said. “Then we recorded and edited it. This is something I do a few times a week and Kade was a rock star at it!”
Self-Walbrick said she got her start in broadcast through her high school broadcast program.
“High school is such a good, lower-risk time to figure out what you're interested in and may want to pursue after graduation,” Self-Walbrick said. “I really appreciate Frenship ISD for giving students the chance to do just that. Without the opportunities I had in high school, I don't think I'd be where I am today.”
Frenship CFO, Farley Reeves, said he had never had a job shadow student visit the business office at Frenship before, and it was an exciting day with his job shadow student JD, discussing the Public School world and the processes that one goes through in elevating in positions, how each department works together, and all of the intricacies of the industry.
“JD was introduced to the differing departments and their leadership,” Reeves said. “He was exposed to some Bond Talk, Personnel review, basic budget information, taxes, property values, the role of the CFO, Admin Services, PEIMS, Technology, Human Resources, Curriculum and Instruction, Public Relations, Police, Policy, etc.… and how each work together to provide a great educational setting.”
Reeves said that he was impressed with JD’s drive and passion right off the bat. He said that JD knows where he wants to go in his future and that he is busy finding out different ways to get there.
“It is important for students to get a deeper understanding of what really goes on in a profession, rather than just what they think goes on,” Reeves said. “To truly know if one is interested and committed to their choice of interest, they need to be able to see more of the behind the scenes processes.”