Career and Technology Education
Ken Smith, Supervisor of Career and Technology Education
301 475-5511, x123

Pax professionals participate in job shadow program:

Students learn about wealth of careers at Naval Air Station

By Norine Rowe

Public Affairs Department

Local students began learning this month about the wide range of career opportunities available at Naval Air Station Patuxent River through a Groundhog Job Shadow Program endorsed by the Department of Defense and sponsored nationally by America's Promise, Junior Achievement, School-to-Work Opportunities, and the American Society of Association Executives.

The goal of the Groundhog Job Shadow Program is to provide young persons with job shadow experiences that offer a close-up look at how skills learned in school are put into action in the workplace. During the month-long program at NAS Patuxent River, military and civilian personnel will help more than 300 eighth-grade students from St. Mary's County Public Schools learn about the numerous professional career opportunities available at the Naval Air Station.

Capt. Paul Roberts, NAS Patuxent River commanding officer, kicked-off the program Feb. 9 by welcoming the first group of students from Esperanza Middle School. "This is really where the future of naval aviation begins," said Roberts as he told the students about the important role that NAS Patuxent River plays in the nation's defense.

In describing the work being done at the Naval Air Station, Roberts compared it to a small city that employs more than 17,000 military, civilian, and contract personnel. "You're going to meet lots of interesting people doing a wide variety of work," he told the students. He explained how technology is used to solve problems in the naval aviation environment and encouraged the students to "learn about the technology being used here, learn about the kinds of work people are doing, and learn what it takes to get into those careers."

Robin Salanon, deputy Equal Employment Opportunity officer for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, also spoke with the students about the kinds of professional career opportunities available at the Naval Air Station. She highlighted the wide range of careers available in technical and engineering disciplines and emphasized the importance of math, science, and computer science for students who are interested in these careers. She also talked about the importance of language arts and communication skills for all career areas.

Following their orientation session, the students visited various work sites throughout the Naval Air Station where they learned about careers in medicine, computers, and engineering. They also learned about naval aviation careers as pilots, flight officers, and astronauts. The sites they visited included the Naval Medical Clinic, the Information Management Department, the Naval Force Aircraft Test Squadron, and the South Engineering Building.

At the Naval Medical Clinic, students met with medical professionals who talked with them about careers in X-ray technology, nursing, and medical lab technology. The students learned that if they want to pursue careers in the medical field, they will need to study such subjects as anatomy, chemistry, biology, physics and physiology in addition to many other math and science courses. They also learned that each medical profession has many specialty areas and that through advanced study, they can obtain additional professional certifications that greatly enhance earning potential.

During their tour of the South Engineering Building, students learned about the technology that affects the most important part of the aircraft - the pilot and the crew. They were able to speak with a variety of career professionals within the Crew Systems lab, from the engineers who design uniforms to withstand the stresses of flight to the craftspeople who actually assemble the uniforms on sewing machines.

Students were also able to get a better understanding of the information technology field and the wide range of computer-related careers during their tour of NAWCAD's Information Management Department (IMD). From jobs as computer programmers, network engineers, and e-mail administrators to positions in network security, computer graphics, and database management, students learned that the large and rapidly evolving field of information technology requires professionals with technical expertise as well as creative problem-solving skills, good communication skills, and the ability to work as part of a team.

During their visit to IMD, the students also learned about some of the newest information technology, including the emerging field of Biometrics which uses fingerprints, hand-geometry, iris patterns, and voice recognition to uniquely identify a technology user. "You are your own password," explained Ray Fenwick, a research analyst at IMD, who told the students that he came to work at the Naval Air Station after graduating from Great Mills High School and serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.

One of the highlights of the information technology presentation and tour was a low-bit video teleconference conducted by Linda Nelson of IMD who sent a small group of students on a virtual island vacation. Once the virtual travelers left the room and arrived at their island destination down the hall, the remaining students were able to talk with them and see them - all decked out in Hawaiian leis and straw hats - via monitors mounted with video cameras. Nelson explained that video teleconferencing is a relatively inexpensive technology used extensively at the Naval Air Station for meetings with NAVAIR team members across the country.

During their job shadow experience, the students were able to get a real taste for the naval aviation work environment during their visit to the Naval Force Aircraft Test Squadron where they toured a P-3 aircraft and talked with pilots, flight engineers, and aviation technicians. For some of the students, this was their first experience onboard an aircraft and many were surprised by the small size of the plane's cockpit with its vast array of dials. Here, they learned from AE1 Dwyan Dozier about the importance of math and science to careers in naval aviation, especially pilot training which he described as "physics-intensive."

As the students visited the various worksites at NAS Patuxent River, David Taylor of Phocus Video filmed them for a career connections video that he is creating for St. Mary's County Public Schools. He explained that the video will focus on jobs available to students in St. Mary's County and will be targeted to eighth-graders who are entering high school. The purpose of the video is to give students a sense of the kind of jobs available in St. Mary's County and the various career options available to them.

Over the next three weeks, students from Spring Ridge, Margaret Brent, and Leonardtown Middle Schools will visit NAS Patuxent River to take part in the job shadow tours. The job shadow program was organized and coordinated by a planning team consisting of John Romer, Tammy Richmond, and Rebecca March of the NAS Public Affairs Office, and Robin Salanon and Kay Drury of NAWCAD's Equal Employment Opportunity Office. Joining them is Ken Smith, supervisor of Career and Technology Education for St. Mary's County Public Schools, who offered a training session to Pax personnel last month on how to give effective presentations to middle school youth.