BB2C Focus Projects: Job Shadowing

BB2C met Aura Bruce over the summer and she so impressed us that we made her a student ambassador. As we talked about in our December blog, she is also doing an internship. She has worked tirelessly this year collecting paperwork and assisting the BB2C Coordinator in arranging job shadowing placements for her classmates. Yet, her own placement had eluded us for quite some time. 

Aura would like to be a music therapist. This field is not well known in our area, therefore finding a practitioner in the field is difficult. After trying several avenues to find someone for our student to shadow, (including an attempt to set up a Skype placement with an agency in Florida) we still had not been able to arrange a job shadow placement for he. Amazingly, there is a new Music Therapy program on the horizon at Marietta College. The director of that new program was able to meet with Aura, but we also wanted to find an active practitioner. Finally after several attempts we were able to find someone. The host is not prominent in the eyes of the community and was surprised we were able to find her. Yet, she was more than happy to meet with Aura and share her experiences. Due to confidentiality reasons of patients, we facilitated the meeting at our Epicenter. Here is Aura's response to her job shadowing placement:

“My job shadowing experience confirmed that Music Therapy is exactly what I thought it was. Not only did I learn how beautiful of a profession it is, but also where the opportunities are for this field and the proper education path to take. I am very grateful for the opportunity of getting to job shadow a music therapist, and getting to hear all of the beautiful on the job stories that she had experienced.”

The host gave our student many valuable pieces of advice for working with people in different populations for this field. The placement also raised questions for Aura about her salary being sufficient to cover any student loan debt she may incur. With more exploration into that question, she can then make an informed decision about her future career. 

THANK YOU to all the job shadowing hosts that allow our students to shadow. Whether you realize it or not, your efforts help to shape our student's futures and allow them to make an informed decision. This is why we continue to work on placements and reach as many students as we can. So please be patient when waiting on a placement. We are working tirelessly to make it happen. It will be worth the wait!