Schools
STEP Students Detail Work Experiences at Addams Career Day
Four students from Valley View School District 365U’s Secondary Transition Experience Program (STEP) visited with Jane Addams Middle School students Tuesday during Career Day.
Audrey Trapp, Matt Kalis, Montell Howard Johnson and Jessika Cannon spent nearly two hours detailing their jobs in the community and in the school district to give the Addams students some idea of what types of opportunities await them.
“It makes me feel happy when I’m working with kids,” said Trapp, who has a paid internship with the day care program at the Bolingbrook Recreation and Aquatic Complex. “They are so innocent. They don’t know right from wrong. My job is to protect them.”
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Cannon, who holds paid internships at the Locker Room as well at Pelican Harbor where she serves as a greeter, cashier and runner, talked about the seasonality of her Pelican Harbor position and what she needs to wear to work at the Locker Room.
“My boss (at the Locker Room) is a very good guy,” she said. “He pays us good money and he brings us lunch almost every day.”
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Kalis, who recently received a paid internship at Jewel, drew some gasps when he told Addams students he had to get up at 5 in the morning to go to work. When he gets off at 2 p.m., he added, “I’m exhausted.”
“Mostly I assist the teacher the best I can,” said Johnson, who has an unpaid internship at Oak View Elementary School. “I read aloud to the kids. I help them with spelling and writing. I also help them with cutting and pasting because they usually have trouble with that.”
Each STEP student fielded questions from the Addams students, addressing specifics about reliability, being on time, meeting new people, etc.
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