'Unmasking the hidden need' - Valley Press

PRESSKIDS
Students gain experience through Job Shadow Day
By Sloan Brewster
Senior Staff Writer
The Master’s School students
spent a day on the job.
On Friday, Nov. 8, seniors
shadowed people working in
fields connected to careers they
are considering.
Courtney Hill was among a
group of students who went to
the Simsbury Police Department,
where they participated in a Citizen’s
Police Academy.
Hill plans to study criminal
justice or psychology in college.
“It was a really good experience,”
she said. “We learned a lot,
things about what happens when
criminals are coming [in] or what
happens at the site of an investigation.”
They also learned about what
Animal Control Officer Mark
Rudewicz does during a day’s
work. Rudewicz gave a presentation
on some of the things he encounters
while on the job, such as
bears and other wild animals. He
showed pictures of bears he took
at different scenes, including one
shot of a bear sucking on a can of
whipped topping that the animal
had found in a trash receptacle it
had rummaged.
“Bears are cute, aren’t they?”
he said during the presentation.
“You don’t want to make the mistake
of going up to them and hugging
them.”
Back at the school, the students
enjoyed lunch and some
pep talks about what to expect in
their futures.
Speakers consistently told
them that if they returned from
job shadowing and no longer
wanted to work in the fields they
had chosen, it was OK because it
meant they were one step closer
to finding the work that for them
will be the most fulfilling.
“Even if you came away today
with something that you’re
not good at, that’s a really good
sign,” said keynote speaker Kathy
McAfee, a motivational speaker
and writer.
Photo by Sloan Brewster
A group of students from The Master’s School spent the morning Friday, Nov. 8 at the Simsbury Police Department,
where they participated in a Citizen’s Police Academy, as part of Job Shadow Day.
McAfee told the crowd about
her own experiences seeking the
right work.
“I had this fantasy of what
I wanted to do and no reality of
what that was really like,” she said.
At the time she thought she
wanted to go into the movies so
her father connected her with a
friend who worked in movie production.
She spent a day shadowing
him at work.
“The only thing that I remember
that he said to me was
‘You know there are two kinds of
people in the world, those people
that belong in front of the camera
and those that belong behind the
camera. You belong behind the
camera.’”
She said she learned a lot
about herself and the movie business
from her shadowing experience.
Namely, she realized that
she had no desire to work in an
industry where the most important
thing about a person was
looks.
“I’m really grateful for that
difficult feedback that he gave
me,” she said. “Sometimes your
future is shown to you in ways
that sting.”
McAfee spoke about the importance
of creating a network in
pre-launching careers.
“You’re going to do it by starting
to network right now,” she
said.
She advised the students to
get LinkedIn accounts right away.
“Don’t wait until you’ve got a
job,” she said.
She also said they should
retain relationships with people
who may be able to help them
get where they are trying to go in
their lives and futures.
“Think about and see your
future,” she said. “Start to have
it materialize through people. ...
Your connections, your relationships,
your contacts will really
accelerate that. ... Start to build
those relationships ... keep them,
maintain them, grow them.”
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22 The Valley Press November 14, 2013
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