Students get a taste of real life with the annual ‘Take Our Kids to Work Day’

Riverside Secondary grade nine students experienced Take Our Kids to Work Day on Wednesday November 4, an annual event that happens all around North America.

Mr. Carlo Muro spoke on what the purpose is of Take Our Kids to Work Day. “It’s a great opportunity for the grade nines to explore their career options and what they might want to do. I think as a side benefit, it makes them more engaged in school because now they’re more focused; they have a bit of a goal for what they want to do,” said Muro. He added that a main goal of this day is to help the students figure out a possible career direction that they want to pursue. “It also helps them when they choose their electives; now they kind of know what they might want to do, so there’s lots of benefits,” said Muro.

Riverside parent Brent Cromarty took three girls: Amel Bouanani, Rylee Ramdeen, and Sydney Cromarty. To enhance the experience, he treated them as if they were newly hired employees at International Software Testing Qualifications Board, a software development company. “We set them up with corporate issue laptops, accounts to access the network and e-mail, and had them install our mobile app on their devices,” said Cromarty. The girls learned about software development and different roles available in the industry giving them a more realistic view on a regular workplace instead of following Cromarty around.

The three girls aren’t the only ones who experienced a rather exciting day. Riverside student Gracyn Kerfers accompanied a family friend to his workplace where she learned about all the duties of a critical care flight paramedic. Kerfers was taken to B.C. Children’s Hospital where she had a tour of her escort’s station, the ambulance and helicopter landing. She spoke on whether she would want the job or not. “I think some of it would be cool, such as able to help people and you’d never get bored because it’s different every day, but I think some of the things you’d see would be pretty hard to look at,” said Kerfers. She learned that a paramedic’s job is difficult and believes that they deserve a lot of respect and appreciation. “I think Take Our Kids to Work Day is beneficial because we get to see the reality of what life is like after school,” said Kerfers.

Take Our Kids to Work Day occurs yearly with ever more interesting stories from each year of school students who participate in it; it teaches students to appreciate and value their parents even more and is a great experience for youth everywhere.