Seniors Complete Their Job Shadows

Over the course of the last month, every senior across MBHS has been required to complete a job shadow that will prepare them for their future career after high school. The project involves shadowing someone at their job for a day, conducting a lengthy interview about their career, and finally, writing an essay about their experience. Even if a senior is unsure about what they want to do after high school, the assignment invites them to discover new opportunities and experience them firsthand. 

The project was created by Expository Reading and Writing 12 teacher Blaire Brinkman in 2018 and was later adopted by AP Language and Composition teacher Emily Cherry after the COVID-19 quarantine. Originally a job fair hosted by MBHS teacher Meredith Haener and former MBHS teacher Ryan Mammarella, where they invited business owners to speak about their jobs, it later blossomed into what it is today. “It [the job fair] was actually a lot of work to put on,” said Brinkman, “and so we thought, ‘why don’t these students actually get out there, and every single senior does it?’” 

Senior in Cherry’s AP Language and Composition course, David Zatt’s job shadow involved riding with a Morro Bay police officer for six hours; pulling people over for broken headlights, taillights, traffic stops, petty theft, and even responding to minor infractions and a domestic violence incident. “I honestly just want to help people who sometimes can’t help themselves or can’t really stand up for themselves, and kind of be the support for someone in need,” said Zatt. Though this wasn’t Zatt’s first time riding along with an officer, he mentioned that his certainty that this job is for him grows with every experience. 

Yaretzi Franco, a senior in Brinkman’s Expository Reading and Writing 12 course, completed her job shadow by driving to Glenn County, Sacramento, and meeting with a cattle breeder. Throughout her shadow, Franco was taught how to cut hair on cows, trim their hooves, as well as add glue to their hair to make it stick up more, amongst other things. Franco began raising cows here last year through the FFA program at MBHS, and the shadow brought a nuance to pursuing it as a career. “He’s [the cattle breeder] like, just helping his community and people from hours away,” said Franco, “I just wanted to be able to help people like that as well.”

Giselle Cuevas Miranda, a senior in Cherry’s AP Language and Composition course, shadowed a Cal Poly SLO professor in the natural sciences and resources department. At first, Cuevas Miranda thought she wanted to become a doctor, but later shifted to teaching and aiding others, potentially in the science field, as she wants to major in chemistry. Within Cuevas Miranda’s shadow, she went to faculty meetings, sat in on lectures, and attended office hours with the professor. “Before the shadow, I was nervous, and then after I interviewed her, I noticed the way she carries herself is so interesting, and she mentioned that the field is not that hard once you have the right mentor,” said Cuevas Miranda, reflecting on the advice the professor gave her, “The experience definitely made me more interested in pursuing it as a career.”

“I think that the assignment is helpful because we get a chance to see more or less what our own life might look like in the future, and if we do want that life for ourselves, because I feel like we’re at the time where we either know for sure or we don’t know at all,” said Cuevas Miranda.

After the seniors have completed their job shadow, both Brinkman and Cherry mention that it’s a mixed spectrum of students who want to continue on with the career post-shadow. “Some students are like, ‘I am 100% into this. Like, I totally want to do it,’ and other students are like, ‘this is not as interesting to me as I thought maybe it would be,’” said Cherry. Whether the students decide that the job they shadowed is the one for them, or the opposite, the experience is extremely broadening when it comes to students’ horizons on their future lives after high school.