The City and St. Charles School District are partnering on a new program this year to offer job shadows to high school students.  Three non-attendance dates, November 13, January 6, and April 10, have been selected in 2019 and 2020 for students to sign up for and shadow their choice of City employees in any City department.  The students can shadow one, two, or three different City professionals each day and even come for more than one of the job shadow dates.

The program was born out of the Bring Your Student to Work Day event, which invites employees to bring their children to work to learn about their parents’ careers in city government.  That event has been so successful and so well received that staff wanted to open the City’s doors to other students in the community who want to learn more about what we do and, we hope, consider a career in municipal government.

The City has hosted college interns in various departments and positions for many years, but what makes this program so different and exciting is being able to expose high school students to the wide variety of municipal careers early, before they decide on a course of higher education.  They will be able to see first-hand the work environments, tools, and tasks, and they will be able to discover steps they can take to prepare themselves for those careers.

Staff members from the City of St. Charles Human Resources Department and D303 Department of College & Career Readiness are working closely to coordinate the program and ensure a rich and rewarding job shadow experience for students.  We are grateful for this wonderful opportunity to work collaboratively on such a positive program and feel it fits well within both organizations’ goals of building community partnerships and highlighting all St. Charles has to offer.  Ultimately, we hope the job shadow program will keep talented individuals local to benefit the community and shape the municipal organizations that proudly serve our citizens for years to come.