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Junior Achievement of Grayson County and the Texoma School-to-Work Initiative are recruiting local business people to serve as mentors on February 7, 2003, as part of National Groundhog Job Shadow Day 2002. The goal of this event is to encourage volunteer mentors across the nation to host a young person at work to show them what a job is like and how skills learned in school could be put into action. The national goal for 2003 is to impact nearly two million students. Locally, placements are needed for more than 300 Grayson county students. Fannin and Cooke county students will participate in job shadowing later this semester.
“Job Shadow Day last year was a big success,” said Harold Rogers, JA Board Chair. “The students, teachers and volunteers in the businesses all had very positive comments about the experience.”
National Groundhog Job Shadow Day 2003 is being made possible by a consortium of organizations interested in promoting volunteerism and school-to-work training for young people. Participating organizations are America’s Promise, The American Society of Association Executives, The National School-to-Work Opportunities Office and Junior Achievement.
“We need all types of businesses to volunteer to host students for three-quarters of a day,” said Sharon Steele-Blakeman, executive director of Texoma School-to-Work Initiative. “We want to offer students a wide variety of jobs to visit and experience.” Each business is requested to host at least two students, with up to two students being assigned to each workplace host. Some businesses are able to assist up to twenty students through partnering students with several hosts. The business is also asked to provide lunch for the students, with pizza being the most popular.
Businesses interested in hosting students can call Junior Achievement at (903) 892-8766 or School-to-Work at (903) 463-8651 no later than January 27.