Panama

"A society where everyone, regardless of background or disability, feels welcome, included and supported"

Disability Mentoring Day pairs students, employers

(Jessica McCarthy, News Herald Writer, Panama City 26.10.11) Disability Mentoring Day created the opportunity this week for student and adult job seekers to shadow employees in their workplace of interest and gain workplace knowledge and experience. Pamela Cramer from Vocational Rehabilitation said this kind of opportunity is important to job seekers in determining their career path. "It exposes people to working; everybody in this room wants to get a job, either now or eventually," she said. "It gets them thinking about what job they might want, gets them exploring the career for the day. Sometimes people come out of it knowing they don't want to do that and others come out of it loving it and wanting to do that job." Cramer said this day of mentoring occurs nationwide during October, which is Disability Awareness Month, and this is Bay County's fourth year of participation. Each year, several local businesses offer their employees as mentors for the job seekers, which allows them to learn related skills. "It allows people to explore a career for a day, and on the flip side of that, it exposes employers to people with disabilities," Cramer said. "Hopefully, they will consider hiring people with disabilities after this experience." Cramer said internships have resulted from this experience in the past and she hopes that will continue this year. Finding businesses to participate is never a problem. "Luckily, we have a good relationship now — this is our fourth year — so I can call the businesses that have participated before and they always say yes. Some are national sponsors, like Publix and Darden restaurants, and they always participate locally," she said. Mike, a student who shadowed at Publix, said the day went well. "I learned how to fit in with everyone else," he said. Linda Johnson said she and Nashira Jackson, directors of the Chapman Early Education Center, feel rewarded when they participate in the Disability Mentoring Day. "It's very rewarding, both for the students and us as directors, as well. The teachers enjoy it and our students do, too," Johnson said. "They all have smiles on their faces while they are here. We let them (shadowers) choose the age category they work with. This is first year we were able to participate with wheelchair students, and they had a good time; they danced and observed the teachers in the classroom." The students and mentors celebrated their experiences with a banquet in the Springfield Community Center Wednesday and businesses associated with the event provided food for the job seekers, mentors and families. The banquet gave each job shadower the chance to share with the crowd what they did during their work time and how they liked it. Those who spoke all said they had a good time with their mentors and several said they wanted to get a permanent job with their mentor's company after their experience

Source: http://www.newsherald.com/articles/mentoring-97752-pairs-students.html