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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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JA needs local businesses to give kids a vast array of careers to ponder
MOST Christmas presents have yet to be wrapped, let alone opened, but be reminded: Groundhog Day is just around the corner.
Mere days after Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or doesn't, Groundhog Job Shadow Day will be observed on Feb. 7 by Junior Achievement nationwide.
Junior Achievement of Hawaii Inc. hopes 600 high school students on Oahu, the Big Island and Maui will participate and gain insight into how school subjects will prepare them for careers.
As such, JA is now recruiting local businesses and businessfolk for job shadowing.
AIG Hawaii Insurance Co. Inc., Best Buy, First Hawaiian Bank, Servco Pacific Inc., the University of Hawaii and Weyerhaeuser Co. have signed on so far.
"We've traditionally done a lot of banks, insurance-type things," said M. Steven Grant, president of JA Hawaii. However, the organization has been expanding its scope to expose students to a wider array of opportunities including franchising, skilled professions such as the building trades, and health care and information technology.
It's very difficult for the students to understand the whole spectrum of the economy, Grant said. A student may be limited to thinking they will go into the same line of work as one of their parents, but exposure to a new industry may spark a previously unknown career passion.
Interested business leaders can contact the Hawaii JA office at president@jahawaii.com.
Exposure beyond the reef
News about Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders is no beeg ting for Hawaii residents -- but those kinds of stories are about to get much wider distribution through U.S. Asian Wire Inc., a new press release and news service.
"We hope to cover all facets of news from and about the Asian-American (and Pacific Islander) community that's pertinent to ethnic as well as mainstream media," said Sue Himmelstein, editorial and media relations specialist.
U.S. Asian Wire was founded in New Jersey by Leslie Yngojo-Bowes, a Filipino-American raised in San Francisco. She previously worked for New York-based Business Wire, which distributes company news releases.
U.S. Asian Wire will provide companies, public relations firms and grassroots organizations a way to get their word out to a targeted, interested audience.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4747, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com