AkshayaShree Nandakumar dreamed of being a doctor. “I had always thought I would be a pediatrician,” she says, “but during my junior year of high school, I started to question that.”
So while volunteering at the John Cochran Division of the VA St. Louis Health Center, Nandakumar went to the operating room reception desk and introduced herself. She spoke about how she wanted to go into medicine and asked to shadow a physician. Nandakumar received a text the next day from an anesthesiologist, asking whether she’d like to watch a procedure.
“That’s how it all began,” she says.
For the next two years, Nandakumar shadowed the anesthesiologist. “I found myself talking to people from different fields in the room,” she says. “Everyone was trying to help me figure out what I wanted to be in medicine.” After hours of shadowing and additional research, the recent Visitation Academy grad plans to pursue a career in anesthesiology.
Gaining such hands-on experience is invaluable for young adults as they begin to ponder college majors. “High school students aren’t familiar with all of the ins and outs of every career that’s out there,” says Adele Hayes, a guidance counselor at Visitation Academy. “An experience in a real workplace gives them a way to flesh out what a particular career means.”
For Emily Spanos, a 2014 Visitation graduate, an internship helped narrow down the countless majors in Miami University’s business school. “The first major I declared was marketing,” she says. “From there, I thought, ‘What made me the happiest during high school?’ She realized that it was an internship at The Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries. Now she’s majoring in marketing and arts management.
Although Spanos believes that her internship at the Sheldon was an invaluable experience, she acknowledges the difficulties that came with doing a college-level internship as a junior in high school. “My internship was a nice introduction into the real world,” she says, “but the time commitment was tough.”
Whether a student is shadowing a marketing executive, physician, or architect, communication is the key. “If there’s someone you want to shadow, just ask,” says Nandakumar. “The worst thing they could say is no.”
Communication is also essential once students are at the jobsite. “Interact. Ask questions,” Hayes suggests. “Find out what qualities your mentor has that connect to this career. Ask about the biggest challenges and joys. Look at it in a personal way.”
Preparing for the visit is often part of that process. At BJC HealthCare, it can be a time-consuming process, involving medical forms and an orientation. Students are also required to maintain a grade point average of at least 2.75 and express an interest in health sciences through their coursework. That preparation helps ensure that each student is engaged in the shadowing experience.
“If a mentor is doing a procedure, we tell them to explain how it relates to the student’s biology or chemistry lesson,” says Diana Wilhold, director of school outreach and youth development at BJC. “Later on, when these young adults are looking for work, they are familiar with the culture and climate of a hospital, so it’s not a huge learning curve for them when they apply.”
Beyond allowing students to explore potential careers, the experience could eventually lead to a job. “We now have 110 employees of BJC who started through school outreach and youth development,” says Wilhold, adding that it’s not unusual for students to explore many fields before finding the perfect fit. “Any exposure or connection in an industry you’re interested in is only going to help you solidify what you want to pursue as a profession.”
And once that job-shadowing experience is over, it’s important to keep in touch. “After you shadow, you should send a handwritten thank-you note,” says Hayes. “Include your contact information, and then leave it in their hands—you don’t want to pester them. But if they invite you to keep in touch, you never know: You might want to contact that person next summer for an internship
