CERM Job Shadowing Program: What they see is what they can be

CERM Job Shadowing Program: What they see is what they can be

Participants in the Summer 2019 CERM Job Shadowing Day Program visit an active job site on Phase One of Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry in Atlanta.

Photo Credit: Brittany Denton

It’s impossible for a young person to envision being something they have never seen. But, seeing another person – especially someone who looks like them – accomplish something significant or interesting can create a spark in a young person that ignites a dream they desire to fulfill. For instance, basketball legend Michael Jordan needed to see sports icon Julius “Dr. J” Erving fly with a basketball to dream that he too could fly into the stratosphere of athletic accomplishment. Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey needed to read Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” before she dreamed of and acquired transcendent mega-success and wealth.

Likewise, entrepreneurs Albert G. Edwards and the late Marcus L. Reese needed to see possibilities, potential and opportunities in the engineering field before they could envision having a technical career. The two high school students at Mattie T. Blount High School in Pritchard, Alabama, met in the early 1980s at a summer outreach program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for high school, where they were exposed to careers in architecture, engineering and construction. This experience created a spark that wouldn’t ignite until more than a decade later, when the two friends reconnected in 1995 to form Corporate Environmental Risk Management (CERM). Since the firm’s humble beginnings in the South DeKalb Business Incubator near Atlanta, Georgia, the firm has grown to more than 100 employees and provides customized engineering solutions to its energy, environmental, facilities, federal, transportation and water resources clients throughout the Southeastern United States.

The experience Edwards and Reese gained from meeting at a summer outreach program encouraged them to make exposing young students to technical careers a major component of CERM’s business philosophy. The company’s early efforts at job shadowing consisted of bringing in students and allowing them to shadow employees. The employees would share their daily activities and discuss what a career in the engineering industry meant. “At first we would bring in kids and let them sit with us, see what we did and show them what it is like,” CERM Managing Director Albert Edwards said. “But over time, the Job Shadowing Program has become more structured and expanded into what it is today.”

CERM Managing Director Albert G. Edwards shares his experience as an entrepreneur with students in the Job Shadowing Program.

Photo Credit: Brittany Denton

CERM’s Job Shadowing Program is now a formal effort that is offered three times each year for high school and college students, coinciding with when school is out of session. One session is during summer vacation, one during winter break, and one during spring break. The program is so highly regarded by parents and members of the Atlanta community that participation has become a competitive process, with applications being reviewed by the CERM Job Shadowing Committee for acceptance. “We currently limit the number of students in each group to about 12 to 15,” CERM Community Engagement Manager Bianca Frails said. “This is partly due to space; however, we have also determined that the smaller groups encourage more engagement from participants and allow a more curated experience.” Due to the high number of applicants this year, CERM expanded the summer session to two full-day sessions; one for college students and the second for high school students.

Frails leads a group of CERM’s emerging leaders to plan and implement the program. The peer committee strives to keep the program interesting and exciting for the participants. “Our emerging professionals have taken the program to a different level,” Edwards said. “They handle the planning and logistics for the program, as well as the selection process … I don’t know if I would have made the cut when I was a student – they are tough.”

The Job Shadowing Program Planning Committee reviews all the applications from students and makes selections based on school grades, community involvement, extracurricular activities and essay responses describing why the candidate wants to participate in the program. “We look to see if CERM’s core values of integrity, loyalty, initiative and sustainability are reflected in the student,” Frails said.

The summer 2019, program was held Aug. 1-2, consisting of a full day of activities beginning at 8:30 a.m. and concluding at 4:30 p.m. Students began the day with a welcome from the CERM Job Shadowing Committee and an ice-breaker exercise to get to know one another. Next a panel CERM’s emerging professionals talked about their background, why they selected technical careers, and their advice to the students considering a similar career path.

The students then boarded a chartered bus, received personal protective equipment and were taken to CERM’s active job site on Phase One of Westside Park at Bellwood Quarry in Atlanta. The project will redevelop the city’s largest park to include a signature gateway and trails leading to the grand overlook area for views of a rock quarry-turned-reservoir. The park will eventually encompass a total of 280 acres, nearly 100 acres larger than Piedmont Park, which had longbeen Atlanta’s largest park. The tour of the construction site allowed students to walk in the dirt and mud of a construction site, view the construction plans being executed, and get a realistic view of the daily activities of an engineer.

“This program showed me what it is like to be an engineer on a daily basis, especially out in the field,” program participant Derek Ewers said. Ewers is a rising senior at Peachtree City High School and maintains a 4.0 grade point average. He is targeting the engineering schools at schools such as Georgia Tech and Purdue University for his collegiate studies. Ewers said, “This program has given me a lot to think about as I get ready for college.”

After the tour the students returned to CERM’s offices – and after shaking the mud off their shoes – they heard a presentation from Byron Hobbs, a transit planner at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) over lunch. Hobbs discussed his career as an engineer and project manager on major development projects for the transit system.

In the afternoon, students participated in a bridge building competition where they used pieces of Lego toys to learn some of the bridge engineering concepts involved in making a safe and sturdy bridge. Four teams of students paired with a CERM employee to design a bridge. Each bridge was tested for the maximum weight it could carry before crumbling to the table. The exercise taught students about the use of design components like archways and trusses to strengthen a bridge and increase the load it can bear.

Job Shadowing Day participants and CERM employees display a model bridge project during the bridge building competition.

Photo Credit: Brittany Denton

The day continued with a presentation from Darryl Gaines and Lakita Lowe of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Both professionals described their careers at NASA and encouraged the students to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers. The students’ activities ended with having a candid discussion with Edwards about his day-to-day experience as managing director of CERM. Edwards told the students to, “... Ask me anything you want. I am an open book and I want to talk about what you would like to know.” The students asked about topics such as how he manages his work/life balance, running the financial operations of the company, and what is was like to lead over 100 employees.

CERM has reaped unexpected benefits from the program. Former participants in the Job Shadowing Program have returned to the company as college interns, and several past participants in the Job Shadowing Program have returned to work in the company as professionals. “It is a great experience to support young people gaining exposure to our company and industry,” Edwards said. “It’s nice if we are able to find talent to help us grow in the future, but we don’t do it for that. We do it because we have been blessed.”

The program is a labor of love for CERM and a way to give back to the community. Edwards said, “Marcus and I always enjoyed this program and looked forward to it every year.” Reese passed away after illness in 2018; and in his honor, CERM established the Marcus L. Reese Engineering Scholarship at Mattie T. Blount High School in Pritchard, Alabama.