Punxsutawney Phil and Malverne Melissa were not the only ones to see their shadows on Monday, Feb. 2. Twelve Jericho High School students, who are interested in learning more about various careers, shadowed professionals around Long Island on Groundhog Day. Started as a Jericho Industry Advisory Board project three years ago, Shadow Day offers sophomores and juniors an all-day career exploration opportunity that often leads to Senior Initiative projects.

Industry Advisory Board coordinators Ed Klobus and Mike Malkush worked with the Long Island Mentoring Partnership and members of the Jericho Industry Advisory Board to place students in their areas of interest.

LI Mentoring provides students with a pamphlet that lists hundreds of companies. They each applied to three companies within a reasonable distance. After placements had been made, students contacted assigned mentors to introduce themselves, get directions, start times and any other pertinent information.

This year, Industry Advisory Board members AHRC and Mary Marks were asked to serve as mentors. Past mentors from the Jericho Advisory Board include Dr. Mitch Kornet, Steve Pedersen, Barbara Krieger and Joe Lorintz.

The careers that students chose to explore were interesting and varied. Matt Chamish and Bryan Levi shadowed engineers at Northrup-Grumman in Bethpage. Brian Sanders and Darren Sachs worked at the AHRC pre-school day care center in Brookville. Matt Lieberman and Brandon Cohen learned about finances at Tweezerman in Pt. Washington. Jill Schnitt and Stephanie Holtz traveled around Long Island and the school district with Mary Marks, the director of public information and community relations for the Jericho School District.

Steven Kovacs and Marc Gale explored human resources and payroll coordination with the Trieber Group in Garden City. Alana Krieger shadowed Jackson speech teacher Fran Rivera, while Jordan Roschwalb visited a car dealership in Islip.

"Shadow Day is a great real world experience," said Mike Malkush. "Students that participate usually love the experience and follow up by taking Senior Initiative the following year. This allows them to spend more in-depth time exploring a career through an internship."