May - The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse,
The Mission and You:
Job Shadow Program
shined the light on both employees and students!
Lighthouse employees said goodbye to our students from the Careers on the Horizon: Job Shadow Program in April.
The pilot program is a partnership between The Lighthouse and Region 7’s Education Service Center. Five students
from local high schools toured the facilities and shadowed hosts over five months. The program’s goal was to place
students with hosts whom are also blind.
“The teacher survey results about the program were very positive. Several teachers stated that they had noticed
improvement in their students’ self-esteem. I think overall everyone benefited from the experience including both the
students and our staff,” says Lighthouse Director Ann Phillips.
One of the five students is from Egypt where she attends an all girl’s school for the blind in Alexandria and is one of
two hundred students. She is the first of her classmates to participate in an exchange student program where she stayed
with a host family and attended classes at Eustace High School. Her name is Somaia and she says after the job shadow
experience she may train for a job in Customer Service after working in the department at Horizon under the
management of Markita Lane.
“Somaia brought a fresh and new insight into Customer Service. She was eager to learn, asked questions, and was able
to apply “hands on” skills in the Customer Service Department. Job Shadowing allowed The Lighthouse to fulfill its
mission by empowering a visually impaired/ blind student,” says Lane.
Somaia also says she feels more confident now that she has learned computer skills that the blind are generally not
trained for in her country. She also plans to take that knowledge back to her country. She also says she will stay in touch
with us here at The Lighthouse. “I am so grateful to come here and learn what I have and get to know you all…. I feel
like you are my family - I found my family here.”
Josh from Canton ISD commented on working in the store with Tim Dawson and Don. “I learned about some of the
training it takes to manage the store financially, and we did inventory and cleaned the store. Despite the way that
sounds, it was fun as well. It was my favorite, personally. Once I get to the bottom of it, I learned a lot of skills and
experienced things that can really help me out in life. Learning ZoomText tricks with Z was fun as well.”
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