On November 7^th, 2018, Renton High School’s 10^th grade students had scattered into various groups to visit work places like Boeing, Sound Transit, Google, Zillow, King County Authority House, Starbucks, and Darigold, to name a few. These students were given an opportunity by these companies to observe and experience what it feels like working for a specific company.

Many students went to different places and shared their varied experiences:

“For my field trip– it was the King County Airlines which overall wasn’t that bad. I will have to mention that some parts mainly when they discussed about operatives and the intro were fairly forced as if some of the staff members were disinterested or forced to volunteer while other parts such as discussing about the ARFF was vastly interesting as students asked questions and they answered. I see their efforts to make it interactive using Kahoot and such…” (Sophomore at Renton).

Another student who went to Google also shared about the experience.

“For the field trip, I went to Google and the it was eye-opening. When we did a Q&A with our speakers, one of the questions was what you wanted for the future when you were a sophomore and everyone’s answer had nothing to do with working at Google. It taught me that I shouldn’t be stressing about getting a specific job today because there’s a lot of jobs out there and I’ll probably switch around,” shared an RHS sophomore.

Another perspective on the day of the field trip comes from a student, Karen Tran, who went to Zillow real-estate company. At first, Tran did not expect much because when kids hear “real-estate” they think of land and houses and nothing fun because it is all paperwork. But, Tran was surprised when to hear that it was a building and it has about 11 floors! They showed the students to the free candy, gaming room, jam room, coffee room, and a nice lounge.

“One thing that was nice was taking time out of their jobs to tell us what they do and how they improve on working on projects for their company. Overall, I would come back also, at the end of the day we eat lunch and get some swag bags!” shared Tran.

Why was this field trip necessary for students to go?

Sophomores at Renton High had an opportunity to go to different work sites to have a chance to find out what they want to do with their lives. It was a chance to see what type of jobs that can fit in with their interests, but why was it so important?

Many students were asked and some had a very common answer.

All the work sites were either big companies or parts of big companies. These students all agreed that it was necessary to go ¨to see if there was a profession we wanted to do that we did not know about. ¨ Kloe Quinn, a sophomore at Renton, stated.

Students also figured that they went on these work sites to find what their interests are. ¨We can start getting ideas on how company´s work…..and another thing is for students to find what they are interested in.¨ Yessenia Rios, a sophomore at Renton, said.

Some students may still be confused on what they want to do when they grow up, so it was a chance ¨to look for a future career,¨ Termaine Milam said, also a sophomore at Renton.

All the work sites were to help clear up confusions for students who were considering what to do with their lives after high school. This field trip was for students ¨to have a general idea of what job you can work for when you grow up,¨ stated Shacur Ali, also a student at Renton High.

These types of field trips are necessary because they give students glimpses of what is possible for their futures, whether it is working for big companies, such as Boeing, or even working for small, but very popular jobs, like Starbucks.

This field trip was really important, because although many students do not admit it, but many of them are still confused about what we want to be. These work sites helped students by giving them a glimpse of what their futures could be.