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Seguin Job Shadow Day gives students a close look at local careers

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today
Seguin Job Shadow Day gives students a close look at local careers

Darren Dunn, general manager at KWED and the Seguin Daily News, gives Cheney Stephenson, a senior at Seguin High School, a glimpse into the life of radio broadcasting. The two were paired up during this year’s Job Shadow Day event organized by the Seguin Economic Development Corporation, the Seguin Area Chamber of Commerce and CTE programs at local schools.



(Seguin) — Local employers are giving students from Seguin, Navarro and Marion high schools a first hand lesson in how they do their business.

Organizers say approximately 150 students participated in this year’s Job Shadow Day, organized by the Seguin Economic Development Corporation, the Seguin Area Chamber of Commerce and the CTE programs at local schools. Each of the students got to pick one of the job shadow opportunities available.

Carlos Moreno, the owner of Lonestar Home Solutions, says the job shadow program is a good idea, and he was eager to have his company be a part of it.

“Kids are our future and I think we need to continue to invest in them but specifically in our trade, construction. It seems that it is in a downward trend with kids maybe not thinking there’s opportunities in construction or just a hands on approach whether it’s an electrician or plumber. We just wanted to open our business to really show them that there is a lot out there in the construction industry from estimating to design to actually installation of items but also to put ourselves out there because we are always looking for good high school students, college students to help take us to the next level as well,” said Moreno.

Summer Knight, a senior at Marion High School, says she was surprised to hear just how many services were offered by Lonestar Home Solutions. She says the job shadow program allowed her to learn something new.

“I’m exploring job options and saw something that I thought I might be interested in so just came to see what exactly they are all about,” said Knight.

Javier Chavez, a senior at Navarro High School, also shared some of his thoughts on the program and his day spent at the business.

“I’m kind of undecided still on what I wanted to do in the future and I just thought maybe give it a chance on the construction and remodeling and learn a little more about it,” said Chavez.

Lonestar Home Solutions actually took on three students, and showed them flooring showroom, which is the former Campbell Floors location on College Street. They also showed them how they take on design, renovation and construction projects.

Navarro High School Senior Jesus Vielma was the third student on the tour. He says the job shadow program will definitely help him to get prepared for the future.

“I just wanted to see what kind of business they run because I’m more into business management and sales — learning more about floor design and all of that,” said Vielma.

Moreno says it was a honor welcome the students into his business. He says he wanted to show them what they do, but he says it was also important for them to understand that there are lots of opportunities available to them right here in their hometown. Moreno says he once stood where those students are now, and he thinks the job shadow program would have been helpful to him.

“I took a different path. I went into an engineering degree and then I kind of felt like man, this is not what I had a passion for and then I got into the construction, remodeling so I feel like if these kids are kind of gravitating toward a certain degree, we can show them that there is so much more in construction so I applaud them for taking on the construction but now, they are really starting to see that there are other options there inside the construction industry. It’s not just the installation of things but there is designing, management things like that,” said Moreno.

Seguin High School student Aracely Medrano learns more about law enforcement from the front seat of Seguin Police Officer Melinda Escobar’s patrol car. The experience was part of this year’s Job Shadow Event.

Over at the Seguin Police Department, two Seguin High School students were getting a major lesson in law enforcement. Demarcus Harris says he thinks he would like to become an officer, and being there at the police station was an eye-opening experience.

“I didn’t know there is a lot of things in here like in this building. There is so much stuff. So much evidence. There’s a lot. It’s cool,” said Harris.

Aracely Medrano also has an interest in law enforcement. We caught up with her and Harris as they sat in the telecommunication or dispatch center at the police department. The students had to take a test and earn their certification just to enter that space. It was that kind of behind the scenes that made an impact on the students. Medrano says the job shadow program was allowing her to get a real world look at something that was important to her. “It’s a little overwhelmingly at first but it’s definitely pretty amazing to see how everything works and fits together. I’m already a sexual abuse advocate and I just wanted to build on top of that and be able to put more experience in the world cause I want to make sure our community is safe and that they know what is going on and so this is my way of trying to do that,” said Medrano.

Mike McCann, Seguin PD Lieutenant for Administration, was in charge of helping the students get the most out of their experience at the police station. He says this kind of outreach is important to the Seguin PD.

“We always want to support our community outreach especially with the youth and the younger generation. It’s a very high priority of ours to be transparent. A lot of people don’t understand why we do what we do and if we can explain to them and educate them, they might not agree but at least they understand and so we can work together,” said McCann.

McCann says helping these students get an inside look at what could become a long career in law enforcement is also important, not just to the police department, but also to the community.

“These young people are interested in going into criminal justice so obviously, we support that completely. We definitely like our homegrown law enforcement so if they are from our community, they graduate from Seguin High School, this is our home, you can’t ask for a better person driving the streets trying to make sure everyone is safe. So, we are excited to have them,” said McCann.

KWED and the Seguin Daily News also got in on the job shadow act on Wednesday. Our student was Cheney Stephenson, a senior at Seguin High School. Stephenson, in fact, helped to gather some of the information for this story. He later spoke about his experience during his day at KWED Radio.

“I found it really exciting and interesting to come and really look into the field that I wanted to pursue later on in life and I was actually accepted into a RTF (radio, television, film) major so, being able to see this from the radio perspective, it was something that I actually hadn’t had a chance to do and being able to come here today and getting that experience was really interesting, really fun,” said Stephenson.

The other employers that also participated in this year’s job shadow program were Guadalupe Regional Medical Center, Alamo Group, CMC Steel Texas, Caterpillar, GVEC, GBRA, the Seguin Fire/EMS Department, the city of Seguin Engineering Department, Conover Veterinary Hospital, The Dillon Group, Inc., the Seguin Gazette, Minigrip, Seguin Christian Academy, MyCue & Brown CPA PC, Tier One Dental, The Koehler Company, the Navarro ISD, Texas Lutheran University, and Diamond Air A/C & Heating Services.