Schools
Jobs For A Day Gives Loudoun Students a Hands-On Experience
Students learn about careers they are interested, including some of the less exciting aspects.
For many students, junior year of high school marks the time when they begin to focus on career and college goals. Parents and teachers begin asking, “What do you want to do after high school?”
Each year Loudoun County Public Schools and the Loudoun School-Business Partnership Executive Council organizes a Job-For-A-Day Program.
On Wednesday, 400 high school juniors from around the county had an opportunity to explore various fields of work.
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Participating businesses and organizations in the past have included Lockheed Martin, Fairfax Fire and Rescue, AOL and the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as Inova Loudoun Hospital.
Inova Loudoun placed more than 60 students for the program and each student worked in an area of interest, such as physical medicine and rehabilitation, the Mobile Health Van, case management, diagnostics and imaging, and general surgery.
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“It was a successful day,” said Donna Fortier, of Mobile Health Services at Inova Loudoun Hospital. “The students had a great time in different departments. Many of our hospital leaders like to teach, so they enjoy the opportunity to work with the kids.”
Kathyrn Ceneskie, a Stone Bridge High School student who spent the day with the Mobile Health Van, said she plans to become a neonatal nurse and that the experience at Inova was “amazing.” She also takes Health and Medical Science classes at C.S. Monroe Technology Center in Leesburg.
“Everyone at Inova was really nice and showed us how to do things. I even learned how to start an I-V,” she said. “It is definitely a great experience if you want to go into health care.”
Fortier said the day gives students a chance to really learn what it’s like to perform some of the more mundane aspects of certain jobs.
“The students seem to enjoy the hands-on work, getting to witness a lot of patient care interaction,” Fortier said. “One student said she had a newer respect for nurses because they are required to do a lot of paperwork and computer work. They are able to appreciate the job for what it really is and not what they imagine it to be.”
