On October 17, 2019, San Pasqual High School offered its annual “Job Shadow Day” Program to allow students to experience a profession for the first time.

The Escondido Education COMPACT works with the Escondido Union High School District every year to provide local high school students with hands-on real-world experience. Students have the opportunity to shadow someone who works in their selected career field for one day. With over 30 companies taking part each year, they secure placements in a wide range of career fields.

Karen Villavicencio, an instructor for College and Career at San Pasqual High School says, “[the students] get to shadow someone in a specialized career of their choice.”

This gives a great opportunity for students to explore and see what they are interested in so they can see a future in a specific career. With 16 career clusters and 12,000 overall careers, this gives a lot of wiggle room for students to become anything.

“[There are] different fields like nursing, healthcare, law, working with Oceanside Police Department, they can shadow anyone in city hall who is politically affiliated, ranches to work with animals, and all kinds of places,” said Villavicencio.

With many career choices, students can experience any job hands-on and learn what it takes to be an “adult.” By the time they graduate high school, they’ll already know what it’s like in the job force and can use it to their advantage when applying and looking for a new job.

Villavicencio says, “[Job Shadow Day] is a really good experience for [kids] to see what it’s actually like on the job versus reading about it or watching a video on it and is also a good networking experience too.”