As a university junior, I remember high school (most of it, anyway) very well. My school had a job-shadowing program. First, they would get students to pick a broad field (e.g. petroleum industry, government, journalism). Then, they would link up interested students with companies or professionals in those areas. The lucky student would skip school for a day and spend it with his shiny new mentor.
Frankly, most of the options open to us were lame. I ended up sorting papers in a county clerk's office for seven hours. If you were willing to do such a thing and could actually show the participants something nifty, it might help a few decide on IT. It's important, though, that the program last more than a day. One day is not enough for anything interesting to take place. This might also be an excellent opportunity to latch onto some young talent; grab yourself some summer interns.
By the time I got to university, I didn't have a clue as to how a full-fledged IT shop was run. Last year, I landed the job of systems administrator for the Math & Computer Science department. Learning everything from scratch has been an adventure. Some hands-on experience would have been useful for helping me find something I love earlier.
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As a university junior, I remember high school (most of it, anyway) very well. My school had a job-shadowing program. First, they would get students to pick a broad field (e.g. petroleum industry, government, journalism). Then, they would link up interested students with companies or professionals in those areas. The lucky student would skip school for a day and spend it with his shiny new mentor.
Frankly, most of the options open to us were lame. I ended up sorting papers in a county clerk's office for seven hours. If you were willing to do such a thing and could actually show the participants something nifty, it might help a few decide on IT. It's important, though, that the program last more than a day. One day is not enough for anything interesting to take place. This might also be an excellent opportunity to latch onto some young talent; grab yourself some summer interns.
By the time I got to university, I didn't have a clue as to how a full-fledged IT shop was run. Last year, I landed the job of systems administrator for the Math & Computer Science department. Learning everything from scratch has been an adventure. Some hands-on experience would have been useful for helping me find something I love earlier.