Volume 1, Issue 2 October 5, 1998

Editor:
Duncan Kunz
(602) 891-2525
duncan.z.kunz@boeing.com

Editorial

Sometimes the press of business, combined with a FAX or two that was sent but never delivered...

Sometimes an editor or a shadowing coordinator doesn’t get the message or forgets to return a call....

Sometimes there’s a last-minute change to the plan...

I had the questionable opportunity to call several Boeing teammates the day before our last shadowing day and say, in so many words:

"Hi, Teammate! I know this is a bit late to be calling, but do you suppose you just might be able to stop whatevery you’re doing tomorrow and spend the day with a school employee?"

Well, it’s pretty obvious what the answer would be. Our teammates, many of them team leads and managers, can’t just stop what they’re doing and modify their plans for that day to accommodate a bunch of teachers, right?

I mean, these folks would have to re-schedule meetings, miss a lunch or two, and acept the many little problems that happen with a last-minute visitor. You can’t expect even the best teammate to go this far out on a limb, right?

Wrong.

They all responded the same way.

"I did this last month and I’d like to do it again."

I’ve never met a fellow employee that just "went through the motions" with this shadowing effort. They’ve all been really interested. They all know how important it is.

There’s probably a lot of reasons for this.

It may have been Mr. Smith down the block that was his role model and interested him in the career he has today.

Maybe it was remembering when Mom said that of course girls can be engineers!

Maybe its because they’re moms and dads themselves.

Maybe they see the same excitement and dedication in our teacher partners, and refuse to let them down.

But it doesn’t matter what the reasons are. When something like this comes up, everyone seems to find time.

(continued on next page)

Everyone in both the schools and the businesses, having seen how shadowing works, is willing and even anxious to do it again. To talk to their colleagues about it. To back it any way they can.

And that’s probably the reason why the shadowing program has succeeded so far, and why it will keep on succeeding.

The Shadowing Program’s going to grow this year. Instead of one company and three or four

schools, we’re aiming for many businesses and all the schools in the Mesa Public Schools district.

Instead of one harried engineer coordinating twenty-odd visits at six-week intervals, there’ll probably be a bunch of us dealing with ten times than many visits.

It’s going to be tough at times.

There’ll be last-minute calls when we find out that a few more visitors are coming.

Sometimes we’ll have to double up on visitors. There’ll always be frustrations of one kind or another.

But it probably doesn’t matter, because the same teamwork will happen, just like it does today. Teachers and business employees will learn from each other and walk away with a new respect for the other person.

And – just like it does now – the kids come out ahead.

Thanks, everybody.

Shadow Visitors In September

From Red Mountain High School...

Guest

Host

Debbie Webster, Math Teacher

Tom Reilley

From Fremont Junior High School...

Keith Parker, Industrial Technology Teacher

Steve Sargent

From Brimhall Junior High School...

Greg Hall, Math Teacher

Jerry Pondy