Field trip gives taste
By Cari Ann Urabe
of work worldLast April, I got to visit Honolulu Cellular on a class field trip, our school's first job-shadowing event. Our Industrial Arts class at Wheeler Intermediate had a Career Kokua program, which helps students think about the types of jobs we might enjoy doing in the future.
I am glad that I got to be participate in the job-shadowing. A bunch of my classmates and I got to dress up and experience what it was like to work at a big communications corporation. We spent the school day going through the entire work place as the employees got involved showing us the ropes.
I had so many great experiences in that one field trip. When we first got there, the people at Honolulu Cellular made everything look as realistic as possible. We were given name tags that looked like real worker tags with our names and our pictures on it. Our class was split up into different groups to tour the office.
We got to see many different types of work areas that ranged from the communication services to the envelope-sealing room. I remember walking down the halls with my group; waiting with curiosity to see what else we would be able to learn. Each work station that I visited was filled with fun, inspiring people, who had thought of great plans to find creative and exciting ways for us to learn about their job.
Each student stayed in a certain work place for a couple of minutes then moved to another area. The workers actually took time to show us what they did and even let us participate by using their computers and phones.
Honolulu Cellular also provided us with gifts and a great lunch. Over lunch, we were shown some commercials that most of us recalled seeing on television.
I think that our class learned a good deal through job-shadowing. I really think that other teens should get the chance to be involved with this kind of program, which allows students to get a firsthand look at careers available in a fun way.
When we all got back to school, a lot of us who went to Honolulu Cellular were telling our friends what had happened, and they said they wished that they could have gone also. I know that our friends would have enjoyed as much as my classmates.
As I think about other field trips that I have been on, I think that the job-shadowing visit was the most memorable.
Cari Ann Urabe is a freshman at Mid-Pacific Institute.
A second wave of Wheeler Intermediate 8th graders
are career-shadowing today.Rant & Rave is a Tuesday Star-Bulletin feature
allowing those 12 to 22 to serve up fresh perspectives.
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