KMC Groundhog Job Shadow Day: Mentors see their shadow, Students see their future


***image1***More than 8,000 students, grades kindergarten to 12th grade, participated in the 2005 Groundhog Job Shadow Day Feb. 2 throughout the KMC.

Job Shadow Day is a nationwide initiative designed to give students an opportunity to “shadow” workplace mentors or their parents during their daily work activities. This program actually continues throughout the school year with Groundhog Day as the traditional kick-off event.

***image2***Now in its seventh year, Groundhog Job Shadow Day inspires children to be enthusiastic about their studies by showing them the correlation between what they learn in school and how it is used in the workplace.

***image3***(Left) Kim O. Cherry, 12, Landstuhl Elementary and Middle School seventh-grader, watches as Dr. Elke Gundel, Kaiserslautern Veterinary Treatment Facility’s veterinarian, removes the spleen of Dakota, a 9-year-old Rottweiler, Feb. 2 at the facility located on Pulaski Barracks.

Staff Sgt. James Hannigan, 435th Civil Engineer Squadron, explains to Ramstein students how to use a rescue saw at the squadron.

***image4***Command sergeant major administrative assistant, Staff Sgt. Cynthia Jackson, 21st Theater Support Command, dons a protective mask on her 10-year-old son, Xavier Jackson, Kaiserslautern American Elementary School fourth-grader, at the designated students’ nuclear, biological and chemical training room, Bldg. 3005 on Panzer Kaserne.

Alexis R. Garcia, 8, Ramstein Intermediate School third-grader, connects an incoming call to its intended destination at the 435th Communications Squadron.

***image5***Alijah Burnett, 9, Ramstein Intermediate School fourth-grader, tries on a firefighter air crash suit at the 435th CES.

National Job Shadowing is a coordinated effort of America’s Promise, Junior Achievement, the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Education.

In 2004, more than one million students and 100,000 businesses participated in the United States.