Payson Roundup | Payson, AZ

From time to time, the Roundup sponsors students who wish to job shadow a reporter to satisfy the requirements for the Rim Country Middle School career class.

All seventh grade students participate in the career class, which prepares them for life after school — from a pretend marriage to creating a household budget and managing a job. The students get a flavor of what adults grapple with day to day. The job shadow allows students to explore an on-the-job experience.

Lindsey Wala and Eve Armstrong aspire to become writers. Lindsey wrote a short piece about her time observing an interview and photo shoot for this edition of Class Acts.

A student’s perspective

Lindsey Wala

My friend Eve Armstrong and I went to job shadow Michele Nelson. We went into a classroom of fourth-graders and listened to Lori Brown, talking about agriculture and ranching. Eve and I got to listen and interview a few kids, we even learned some things along the way.

I talked to some of the kids who got to pull things out of Lori’s bucket.

Justin Keegan said, “ I thought I got a saddle but I ended up getting pants things.”

Well, those pants things were actually chaps.

Another example is Emily Daniels, she said,” I got a bridle out of the bucket.” After the kids pulled out something from the bucket Lori explained what they were, so everyone learns what it is used for, like a bridle is used for steering the horses around, and chaps are used so horse riders don’t get their legs all scratched up.