Project SEEK offers job-shadowing opportunities

Today, prospective doctors will get a taste of the future. Project SEEK, a program within the Career Development Center, gives students the opportunity to shadow professionals in their chosen field.\nJustin Grossman, a graduate assistant at the CDC and co-coordinator of Project SEEK, said a job-shadowing program can help students decide if a particular career is right for them. Project SEEK, which stands for Sharing Experience and Employment Knowledge, focuses on medical, allied health, nursing and law fields. \n"It's a program that does several things," Grossman said. "First, it exposes students to professional practitioners within various fields. The second part is really a job-shadowing component."\nGrossman said the CDC is hoping to develop public service and social service fields. While these areas have been unsuccessful in the past, this year the CDC is trying a new marketing strategy. \nThe CDC also assists students who want to set up their own specialized job shadows, but has been overwhelmed this year. Grossman said the program is doing its best to accommodate the students' needs.\n"In the past we've had one or two people request it a year -- this year we had 30," Grossman said. "The best solution we can offer at this point is workshops on networking and going about setting up interviews."\nToday, Project SEEK is taking a group of students to visit the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis. Students will be speaking with doctors working in specialized fields, getting advice on applying to and paying for medical school and listening to a panel of medical students talk about the infamous trials of medical school. Project SEEK is offering sessions on nursing, allied health and law later this month. \nAmber Huffman, a senior majoring in biology, has participated in Project SEEK in previous years.\n"I'm pre-med, so I got to go to the IU School of Medicine," Huffman said. "In previous years we shadowed the doctor, but this year they're doing it a little differently. It was a really cool experience, because just going through classes, you don't know what a doctor's life is like. This way you get to talk to them and see them with patients."\nHuffman also said Project SEEK helped her decide to go to medical school.\n"It's really neat, because they also have a panel of med students, and you get to see what their day-to-day life is like," Huffman said.\nFreshman Tiffany Lents is familiar with Project SEEK, but she said her busy academic schedule wouldn't accommodate a job shadow.\n"Nursing majors have to have nearly perfect GPAs to get into nursing school," Lents said. "Most of us are just content to study for now."\nLents said while she can't participate now, once she is admitted into nursing school she will likely join in. \n"It's definitely something I'd consider," she said.\nGrossman addressed the system's limitations, saying that the program had to choose 30 participants from 100 applicants. Because of the system's limited spaces, Grossman said he encouraged students to set up their own job shadowing opportunities.\n"Students can do this anytime, any place," Grossman said. "They can see what kind of opportunities their local hospital has. It's a matter of contacting the right people and doing the proper networking, and just asking, really. People are usually very happy to share their daily lives. There's no better way to confirm a career choice than shadowing."\n-- Contact staff writer Kehla West at krwest@indiana.edu.