LGHS held its annual staff development day on Mar. 9, giving students a day’s break from school. While many enjoyed the chance to relax, around 300 students participated in LGHS’s JobCamp. Students shadowed a professional in a field of their choice, with a wide range of options including engineering, finance, and healthcare.
Heather LeRoy, the Job Shadow Day Chair of LGHS’s Home and School Club, organized the program and restarted it in 2022 after the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, it has grown from about 150 students and 30 companies to 300 students and 45 companies. LeRoy pointed out that in addition to introducing students to potential careers, JobCamp allows them to “connect with other professional adults — have a firm handshake, make eye contact when talking, prepare good questions, and have a meaningful conversation.”
For many, the program offered a rare occasion to explore careers they might pursue. Freshman Aditi Anumula shadowed engineers at Amazon, where she toured labs and learned how they test popular devices like Kindle and Alexa during the design process. Anumula recounted the experience as “very eye-opening, because I had never been in a real engineering lab setup before.” Interested in space and engineering, sophomore Abigail Tsao had the exciting opportunity to tour NASA behind the scenes. Tsao observed vertical motion simulations and wind tunnels, learning how they draw in air to equalize airflow. Having gained a deeper understanding of space science and engineering, Tsao would definitely recommend JobCamp to other students…