LAUREN BROWN | guest writer
KIERSTI PLOG | guest writer
A group of 150 students from Azusa, Gladstone and Sierra High Schools saw a glimpse of potential future careers at APU and around the community in Thursday’s fifth annual Job Shadow Day. Their experiences ranged from assisting with physical therapy at Casa Colina to following the Azusa Fire Department.
APU and many offices within the city of Azusa partnered with the Azusa Unified School District to hold this event.
The Job Shadow lets students in the Azusa community follow people in various careers around for a day. Students who take part in the event experience the tasks and responsibilities specific careers demand.
APU has tried to bridge the gap between the university and the Azusa high schools, according to Assistant Director of APU’s Center for Global Learning and Engagement Carrie Domen.
“We need to reach out. The students are our future generation,” Domen said.
Domen believes APU’s participation in the Job Shadow helps build a friendship between the university and the Azusa high schools.
“I learned how much school is really needed to use all these machines,” Sierra High School senior Megan Jordan said.
Jordan worked with Casa Colina’s rehabilitation hospital, learned about therapy massages, gave ice packs and worked with patients on specific exercises. She was recommended to Casa Colina because she wants to be a licensed vocational nurse.
Gladstone High School senior Jesus Vieyra toured the city with firefighters in a fire truck.
While out, the firefighters received a call. They rushed to the scene to rescue a choking 11-month-old baby.
“These guys are lifesavers—you [have to] value life every day. You go into a house, and never know if you might not come out,” Vieyra said.
The main purpose of this event was to “motivate kids, whether shadowing skilled auto mechanics or working in a hospital,” APU Director of Community Relations Ginny Dadaian said.
To create the Job Shadow Day, the City Chamber of Commerce and Azusa Unified School District came together and requested an the event.
According to Dadaian, APU facilitates a place where students from the Azusa community can see that “college is accessible and attainable.”
Job shadowing locations ranged from the Azusa Recreation and Family Services Department to the East Valley Hospital to Citrus College and APU.
“I think it’s a great event for mentoring,” Azusa Director of Recreation and Family Services Joe Jacobs said.
The five students who shadowed Jacobs looked at some of the city’s park projects from a management standpoint and worked on a press release.
“It starts to give them some skills and aspirations for future career endeavors,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs believes the Job Shadow offers students a glimpse of “the other end of the rainbow” and the practical value of subjects they learn in class, like algebra and grammar.
Citrus College Distance Education Supervisor Lari Kirby focused on helping the student she mentored understand her career.
“Allowing [students] to job shadow people already in the work force is always beneficial,” Kirby said. “I think more of it needs to happen.”
The student she worked with plans to attend Citrus next fall. Kirby believes the Job Shadow helped her grow more comfortable with the campus and feel like she knows someone.
Other students were exposed to a variety of careers in APU offices including Facilities Management, IMT, the Center for Global Learning and Engagement, Student Financial Services, Hospitality, and the Bookstore. The entire group gathered for an Italian buffet lunch in UTCC, where Professor of Business and Management Dr. Stuart Strother spoke on the importance of higher education for future career success.
Dadaian, who worked with the chamber of commerce and the school district to coordinate the Job Shadow, mentored two girls in the Community Relations office.
“I had my students e-mailing the mayor and a councilperson,” Dadaian said.
Dadaian said she hopes the students’ visit to APU will encourage them to pursue college, whether at APU or elsewhere.
“It’s a very hospitable campus,” Dadaian said. “If you feel welcome somewhere you’re going to say, ‘Okay, I can do that.’”
Dadaian believes that today college can be accessible for everyone and that APU’s atmosphere can help students reach a university education.
Dadaian said, “We don’t realize what a smile will do to people.”
