March 29, 2017
Learning on the job
Around Town
Free egg hunt at Youth Activity Park. P.2 St. Charles County breaks ground on Emergency Operations Center. P.3 St. Charles Trolley celebrates return with ribbon cutting. P.6
School St. Dominic HS students receive awards. P.8 Six FZHS seniors named to Missouri Scholars 100. P.8
Business
Photo by Ray Rockwell Nicholas Whitling, a senior Fort Zumwalt East (center), stands with engineer Jeff Dennis (left) and Assistant Fire Chief Brian P Moore of the O’Fallon Fire Protection District at O’Fallon Fire Protection District Station 3 on March 23. Whitling - who plans to go to Lindenwood University and study fire and paramedic science - will be job shadowing with firefighters and EMT paramedics in the district.
Career Explorations Alliance gives students a chance to shadow professionals in the workplace By Brett Auten Students from St. Charles and Lincoln counties will be flooding workplaces over the next couple of weeks. An estimated 710 high school students and St. Charles Community College (SCC) students will be out in the community from March 28-31 and April 4-7, with the opportunity to job shadow someone in their field of interest through a new SCC program, the Career Explorations Alliance. Through the program, students shadow professionals in a wide range of fields from cyber security experts to fashion design to heating and cooling professionals to tattoo artists. Very few companies still host “bring your child to work” days and Dawn Thornton, the program manager of the Career Explorations Alliance, feels this is a missed opportunity for both the companies and the prospective employees. “Some of our students have never been in a professional work environment,” Thornton said. “We are exposing them to this while also reinforcing the importance of soft
skills like hand-written thank you notes and being prepared with questions. The professionals participating are very excited about sharing their knowledge and expertise with a younger generation. Students usually don’t
“I job shadowed an administrator and then an emergency room nurse on the same day. Had I not participated in the program, I would have gone on the wrong path” - Christine Hartung have exposure to a profession until after they have graduated from a trade school or college, so this gives them a real-world feel.” The Career Explorations Alliance is
relatively new as it was launched in January 2016. It is a partnership with six local school districts in St. Charles and Lincoln counties. The participating school districts include; City of St. Charles, Fort Zumwalt, Francis Howell, Lincoln County, Orchard Farm and Wentzville. The program has been a hit for students and professionals and there has been an overwhelming amount of professionals who have come forward to offer their time. Christine Hartung is a senior at Wentzville Holt High School who will attend the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the fall. She participated in the program by job shadowing at Barnes-Jewish/Christian St. Peters hospital last fall – and good thing she did. “I job shadowed an administrator and then an emergency room nurse on the same day,” Hartung said. “Both were really interesting and going into it I thought I wanted to go into healthcare administration, but afterward I realized I wanted to be more hands-on on the clinical side. Had I not participated in the program, I would have gone See LEARNING page 2
Serving St. Louis, St. Charles, and Lincoln Counties | FREE Online at mycnews.com | Vol. 19 No. 13 | 636-379-1775
1st Financial officially breaks ground. P.9 John Dengler Tobacconist celebrates 100th anniversary. P.9
Movie
‘The Founder’ P.16
Weather FRIDAY Chance of Showers; Sun 60/42 SATURDAY Mostly Sunny 62/45 SUNDAY Chance of Rain 64/44 FirstWarn Weather
prepared by meteorologist Nick Palisch. For the latest updates visit www.facebook.com/nickswx.