Paige Hert

Lining the center of the room, several printing presses make copies of Community Impact’s latest newspaper. Junior Skyler King shadowed at Community Impact for her Career Investigation Day where she got a tour of the printing press and spoke with several employees including one of the head editors and a designer. “I really think [my favorite part] was talking to the designer,” King said. “Before I thought I really wanted to focus on just pure writing with journalism, but I thought what she did was maybe even cooler and it really made me rethink what I want to do, like if I want to do social media design, or graphic design or something like that.”

Doctor or Nurse? Architect or Interior Designer? Police Officer or Firefighter? With so many career options to choose from, it can be challenging and stressful for students to decide which path they’d like to take without having experienced it before. Career Investigation Days were created to give students a chance to explore different career paths in the real world to help them decide what career they would like to pursue. 

Career Investigation Days, or CI Days, are a total of four days—two days junior year and two days senior year—that a student can be excused from school to spend the day observing a career. Students can participate by setting up a day on their own or by going through the school to be matched with organizations that have partnered with LISD. Junior Avani Eckert shadowed at Advanced Pain Care in Cedar Park after signing up for a CI Day with the school, and mainly observed pain management doctors and anesthesiologists.  

“[My CI Day] helped me understand what the experience would be like if I worked in that field,” Eckert said. “My favorite part was actually going into the room with the doctors because I got to learn a lot about different problems people face and where they stem from, as well as different ways [medical professionals] can help through medication and surgeries.”

From the seven high schools in the district, 160 students were placed for a CI Day, and 40 different businesses partnered with LISD to host students. Students shadowed careers in real estate, engineering, architecture, physical therapy, public safety and more. Shadowing at Corvalent, senior Dustin Nguyen met with engineers, marketing professionals and the CEO to learn more about mechanical engineering.

“[The CEO] gave us a lot of advice on what to do with our futures, and he was kind of counseling us,” Nguyen said. “He was like, ‘a lot of people usually don’t figure out their own skills and what to do in the future, and they end up unhappy with their jobs,’ so he was giving us advice on figuring out what we really want to do [and] what we actually like.”

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, LISD held COOL Week, during which seniors shadowed a profession for a full week. COOL week was discontinued after the pandemic, but CI Days were approved this year by the Texas Education Agency to offer students a similar experience. 

“One of the things we used to say with COOL Week was that college is a very expensive place to find out what you want to do for the rest of your life,” Work-Based Learning Coordinator Sarah Spradling said. “We see your K-12 education as a way to not only develop a strong academic foundation, but also to explore your interests and figure out who you are and what you’re passionate about, [so] seeing the real world at work is going to be that much more beneficial for students.”

CI Days arranged by the school were held during February, the CTE month. After filling out an interest form for the CI Days, students were matched to an organization, given a date to go, and sent any information they needed to know prior to going, such as what to wear and where the CI Day will take place. At their CI Day, students had to get an attendance form signed by an employee to be turned into the attendance office and be excused for their absence. After being matched with Community Impact and attending her CI Day, junior Skyler King said she was given new insight into what career she would like to pursue. 

“I really think [my favorite part] was talking to the designer,” King said. “Before, I thought I really wanted to focus on just pure writing with journalism, but I thought what she did was maybe even cooler and it really made me rethink what I want to do, like if I want to do social media design, or graphic design, or something like that.”

Stribling said one of her goals is to increase student participation and alleviate any worries students may have about participating.  

“One of the biggest challenges we face is that students are nervous,” Stribling said. “My advice is to be confident. Ask questions, be curious [and] tell them if you’re nervous because once you say, ‘hey, I’m a little bit nervous, [and] I don’t really know what to expect,’ they will take you under their wing, and they will want to make you feel comfortable.”

After feeling nervous herself, King said she advises others to trust that everything will work out how it’s supposed to. 

“I was really stressed about it, and traffic was really bad on my way there, so I ended up being five, ten minutes late when I was supposed to be there 15 minutes early,” King said. “[When I got there], they really made me feel at home and comfortable, and they were super nice and welcoming. I really loved it, [and] it was so much fun.”

In the future, Stribling said she hopes to expand not only student participation, but to increase the number of community business partners and hold CI Days year-round rather than only in the month of February. 

“I encourage students to approach it with an open mindset and see it as an advantageous way to not only grow yourself, but also to set yourself apart with the experience that you have,” Stribling said. “You’re not going to get very far in life in general if you don’t talk to people, [so] be brave, jump into it and, be curious [because] that curiosity really does go a long way to help you figure out what it is that you want to do in life.”

For more information, visit the Career Investigation Days website.