Since the beginning of the school year, Career Shadow Days have been in full swing. Career Shadow Days allow seniors to spend the day with a professional in the career field of their choosing.
So far, about half of the seniors have taken part in a Career Shadow Day. They have visited a diverse collection of organizations, including the Baltimore County Circuit Court, Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins Hospital, MedSTAR Health, and St. Joseph’s Elementary School. Many students have shadowed under nurse practitioners, physician assistants, surgeons, court officials, social workers, and skincare physicians.
Students who have gone to a Career Shadow Day greatly enjoyed their experience. Lilly Nicholas visited Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she shadowed under Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) doctors. Her hosts were extremely helpful, answering questions and showing her “what a day in the life is like” for a PICU doctor, Nicholas said. She also enjoyed “seeing how all the doctors work together from different floors” to treat their patients.
Lucy Goldman’s shadow day took place at Greater Baltimore Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Goldman expressed amazement at “just how many technological inventions are used to keep a baby alive and healthy.” Her host also helped her learn about “what the field looks like on a day-to-day basis and the tasks needed to perform.”
Barbara Mantler, Maryale’s experimental learning coordinator, is tasked with arranging meaningful Career Shadow Days for students. For her, providing these opportunities to students requires reaching out to parents, alumnae, and anyone with a connection to Maryvale.
There have been some professions that have been difficult to find places to shadow under, Mantler said. The field of psychology, for example, is challenging because of privacy reasons. “It’s really difficult to try to have somebody sit and all that because you can’t shadow somebody’s therapy,” she explained.
Business occupations also can be challenging given that “it’s such a big field” and many students are interested in niche areas.
Luckily, Mantler plans to make exciting changes to the program that will open new opportunities for more students to shadow under a wider range of fields. Career Shadow Days will transition into a “robust” summer program that allows current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors to shadow under their field of choice.
Mantler also hopes to set up lasting partnerships with Catholic Charities and other nonprofits in the Baltimore area. She states that working with these organizations “Helps in the mission of Maryvale and ensures students leave lasting impacts in their community.”
Mantler highly recommends going on a Career Shadow Day. The experience helps students not only figure out what they like, but also what they don’t like. Mantler believes that the ideas “you get from that day could really be life changing.”
