Malta businesses host students for Job Shadowing day

Malta Chamber of Commerce's inaugural Job Shadowing Session brought eight young adults (seven from Dodson School and one from Malta High School) to town last Thursday and teamed them up with business leaders in Malta for an afternoon of training and information.

Malta Chamber Executive Director Dina Meneely said invites for the event were sent to all Phillips County Schools and students came to town to meet with mentors at the Phillips County Hospital (Ward Van Wichen), CHS Big Sky (Jeri Engstrom), Milk River Veterinary (Rick Levesque) and Blades Day Spa with Ann Sautter, who is also the Vice President of the Malta Chamber, said in the past she has people come job shadow with her, but admitted that it had been a long time.

"Dina came up with an idea for a mentoring program for our businesses, but we didn't get any response," Sautter said. "We decided that maybe we were going about it the wrong way and decided to present the idea to high school kids and let them see how many opportunities there are to stay in Phillips County and have careers here instead of moving away."

Dodson School Superintendent Gary Weitz said he was thrilled to see the program offered to students and brought Ireland Best.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for our students and I really appreciate the Chamber including us in this event and the kids are all here to make the best of it," Supt. Weitz said. "Hopefully they make some connections and decide on some careers."

The students converged in the basement of the Phillips County Library and from there were taken to their job shadow destination where they would spend the next several hours talking with employees of the establishments and in some instances, getting hands on training.

Heading off to spend the afternoon with Sautter at Blades was Dodson's Jordan Prewitt and Hannah Kienenberger; off to CHS Big Sky was Dodson's David Jaynes and Les Jones; Milk River Veterinary was joined by Malta's Evie McCorkle and drawing the biggest crowd on the day, Phillips County Hospital, Dodson's Ireland Best, Sophia Hebert and Gabriel Werk were welcomed.

"I picked the hospital because I want to be a doctor," Werk said, adding that he wasn't sure what type of doctor yet. Werk, who admitted to enjoying both science and arguing, said that he would also like to be a lawyer, said he hoped to gain guidance during the day to see what it takes to become a doctor.

Van Wichen, CEO at Phillips County Hospital, said he was excited that the students decided to come to the hospital to learn about careers in the medical fields. Van Wichen said that the PCH has nurse practitioner students quite often, but said it was fun to have junior high and high school students at the hospital because they bring enthusiasm and excitement to the campus.

"They ask a lot of questions and keep us on our toes," Van Wichen said. "Our doors are always open to them and it is fun to see these people of their age starting to think about what they might want to do in the future."

Van Wichen said the students at the PCH on Thursday spent time in Physical Therapy, the Emergency Room, Lab and X-ray and in the Clinic.

Back at Blades Day Spa, Sautter broke out a mannequin's head (with hair) for Kienenberger and Prewitt to practice applying highlights upon. Prewitt and Kienenberger said they were enjoying learning about the ins and out of running a spa. Kienenberger, a senior at Dodson, said cosmetology school is an option for her after school and Prewitt said the work is harder than she thought and more difficult than it may appear.

"I have learned a lot," she said. "There are a lot of things here that go on in a day that I hadn't considered."

Meneely said the Job Shadowing was a success and added the she and the Malta Chamber of Commerce look forward to hosting the event again in the future.