Groundhog Job Shadow Day

By Julia Menegay, Chair of the School2Work subcommittee of the Workforce Readiness Committee

One of the focuses of AHRMA’s Workforce Readiness Committee is to connect K-12 students with businesses and provide opportunities for these students to learn about the business world.  The WFR Committee partners with Communities in Schools (CIS) and promotes the mentoring program, as well as other CIS projects. 

One recent project, Groundhog Job Shadow Day, is an example of what students can learn when they have the opportunity to interact with employers.

Groundhog Job Shadow Day is held every year around February 2 and is an opportunity for students to visit businesses and learn about different industries and careers.  This year AHRMA helped recruit businesses to participate.

One business, Alliance Abroad Group, hosted four high school students and both the students and the employees had a lot of fun.  Ana Marisa Militano, who coordinated the day for the company, shared these comments from an employee:

"It was such a fun time!! We had 4 young ladies, 1 senior, 2 juniors and a sophomore. They met with the various teams and were very dialed into the conversations asking questions and participating. The lunch was a lot of fun as they got a chance to mingle with the employees and ask questions about travel, college and how we got to AAG. One especially funny time was when we were talking to them about the benefits of working for AAG and jokingly one of the ladies said “oh let me guess you have a gym too” everyone laughed and said yes! It was really funny. At the end of the day, I got a few minutes to speak with the ladies and their chaperones one on one and let them know from a hiring/recruiting standpoint how important education is and staying in school. I pointed out that everyone in the room with them at lunch had gone to college and applied themselves and through that they reaped the benefits of working for AAG. I also tied in how important and “why” they have to be in class at a certain time, follow rules at school, listening to their teachers (because we all have bosses!!!) and the importance of excellent grammar, spelling and public speaking in any work environment. They all seemed dialed in and held eye contact while we were chatting. Overall, it was a lot of fun, we were able to showcase our business and it was especially neat having 4 ladies there and seeing their faces when we told them that we have a female CEO, almost all the managers are female and we have a majority female staff. It definitely seemed to resonate with them."

We’re so glad that we could help make connections and contribute to the success of this project.  If your business can help with work-based learning opportunities for students, or if you’re interested in becoming involved with the WFR Committee please let us know.  We can help connect you for mentoring and other CIS projects, and we often have requests for speakers for career days in the schools.  

For more information, contact vpworkforcereadiness@austinhumanresource.org.