Glimpsing a SHADOW of the FUTURE

Area high schoolers participate in job shadow event

(Seguin) – Never in her wildest dreams did Kimberly Guerrero, a senior at Seguin High School think that a glimpse into her future was only a few hundred feet away from her classroom window.

That glimpse turned more into a full workday experience as she and other students from Seguin, Navarro and Marion High Schools took part in the 4th annual Seguin Job Shadow Day program. Orchestrated by the Seguin Economic Development Corporation, students shadowed and participated in hands on training in a variety of job roles throughout the Seguin community.

For Guerrero, it was serving as a tech at Core Veterinary Pharmacy located just a block away from the high school campus at 1136 E. Kingsbury St.

With a goal of one day being a veterinarian, Guerrero tells the Seguin Daily News that she spent part of her day Wednesday mixing and compounding medication for equine and small animals.

“What we are making, this helps horses, and it helps them with ulcers whenever they get too stressed when they are racing or just doing something and it helps them digest, I guess a little and to let them be less stressed,” said Guerrero.

Guerrero says investing her time in the prescriptions that help to heal and protect animals was just a new level of veterinary medicine that she was exposed to during this experience.

“It seems very interesting — something to do every day, new medicine. It’s something that I’ve looked into, but this was just like an opportunity that I was given by my teacher because she thought I would really like (it) — because I’ve been really into it and she thought that this was a quick job opportunity that I could look at,” said Guerrero. 

Perhaps what was most eye opening for Guerrero was the opportunity or opportunities that exist right here in her own community.

“I definitely did not know that this was here. This was my first time seeing it. I think it’s very nice to have this here in a small town. There’s not really a lot of things and having a pharmacy for animals, it’s pretty great,” said Guerrero.

Guerrero says she plans to attend Palo Alto College in San Antonio and then later Texas A&M University in College Station. Guerrero says thanks to this experience, she has claimed yet another outlook in the veterinary field which includes veterinary medicine.

 Sharing the lab space at Core Veterinary Pharmacy was Trinity Aguirre, a senior at Marion High School.

Aguirre says like Guerrero, she too was surprised to learn that Seguin was home to such a specialized field.

“It’s really eye opening and like a really big learning experience. I’m learning lot about all the stuff you normally don’t see on TV and stuff. It’s going good,” said Aguirre. 

All in all, Aguirre says she is thankful for the overall Job Shadow Day experience and hopes to see it continue.

“I think this is really important and it’s really fundamental for high school students because it allows us to dip our toes in it and it’s really cool,” said Aguirre.

The continuation of this Job Shadow program in Seguin appears to be likely — that is if it is left up to folks like Triena Brand, the owner and operator of Core Veterinary Pharmacy.

Brand, who has operated the business for the last three years, says she applauds this pairing up of students and professionals.

“I’m super excited about it. I heard about it through Seguin and my kids go to Navarro, so they have these programs and I’m super excited that they have this in school. I wish I had it when I was in school because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. You have this idea of what you want to do but you don’t really know what it’s about when you go to work actually. For me, giving these kids — like she wants to be a veterinarian, but she also wants to get experience — this is just an eye opener for them because they might have not been interested in it. Maybe they thought they were interested in it but it’s not actually what they wanted to do — but just the fact that the schools offer it so they can have certification when they finish with school, it is even better. I would help with anything that I can because if I had this when I went to school, I would probably have ended up a different way maybe you know just because you have an idea of what you want to do. But work is different than what you think it is and this will give the kids the experience to open up the minds about what the job actually entails,” said Brand.

In fact, such experiences also allow the professionals to share with the students their own pathways. Brand says it’s just a way to widen any career choice for a student.

‘Most people don’t even know that this part of pharmacy is actually a thing. I didn’t know it. I worked in retail for 14 years and I kind of stumbled onto this as an opportunity. I didn’t’ know it was something that existed so these kids that want to think about going into pharmacy school, pharmacy tech, it’s just not retail. It’s not Walmart’s, the Walgreens, the CVS’s that you see. There are so many different things. There are hospitals. There’s these lab type of situations that they can work with — veterinary compounding or veterinary medications only — even this side that we do for the veterinary side, there’s a human side too. So, people don’t know about that, and these kids don’t know it. All you think your pharmacy is retail. It’s not just that. There are so many specialties out there,” said Brand.

Brand says the Job Shadow Day Program also provides awareness to all students about the careers already lurking in their own back yards. She says whether a student chooses to stay in Seguin or purse college and return home, there are always options even those that are rare and sometimes only significant to Seguin. 

“There isn’t any other facility like this in southern Texas. I know there is one in Houston and one in Dallas but there isn’t anything in the southern (area). There are some pharmacies that are human and a little bit of veterinary, but we specialize only in veterinary. We do equine, wildlife, small animals so we do the whole thing. We are not an open-door pharmacy. That means we don’t have a front shop. We only do prescription medications, so they have to go to their vet first. This is specifically tailored for the animal. It’s not something you can buy off the shelf. We make it from scratch, and we have certain formulations that we make. We can adjust it to what the animals need so it’s a really interesting field,” said Brand.

Participating businesses in this year’s Job Shadow Day program included Caterpillar, City of Seguin, Dietz Flower Shop, Funky Monkey Vintage Venue, GBRA, Guadalupe Regional Medical Center, Lone Star Home Solutions, Niagara Bottling, Republic Plastics, Schulze’s Pit Room, Seguin Fire Department, Seguin Independent School District, Seguin Police Department, Tier One Dental, and United Alloy.