Friday, February 17, 2006

The Funky Banana enjoys a job shadow on Job Shadow Day. Huntingdon High School student Bethany Houle chose The Funky Banana for her “day in the workforce” due to her interest in graphic arts.

National Groundhog Job Shadow Day is an academically motivating activity designed to giving students a unique opportunity to “shadow” a workplace mentor as he or she goes through a normal day on the job, and to provide the answer to the commonly asked question, “Why do I have to learn this?” The program invites students to see firsthand how the skills they learn in school relate to the workplace. Job Shadowing is led by the National Job Shadow Coalition and is supported though national sponsorship.

TFB Store Manager Tiffany Riggs commented, “Job shadowing is also a great opportunity to showcase the graphic arts industry and all that it has to offer through hands-on learning. There is a growing need in local - and wider spread - job opportunities.”

“This is a wonderful chance to expose more young people to our industry and to show them the career tracks and upward mobility available to them, the graphics and technological stance we support – is a forward, open-ended avenue,” said The Funky Banana owner, Kristi Halsey. “It is the youth that are our upcoming workforce. We must show initiative, interest in what they are doing, and offer them direction.”

Bethany designed, printed and pressed her own t-shirt while “on the job” at “the ‘nanner,” and left saying that she “had a great day, but there’s a little more to all this than she had thought.”