Admit it. You had been younger as soon as. And whenever you had been younger, likelihood is you didn’t know what the long run held. Enter job shadowing, a good way to discover careers and achieve helpful details about what it takes to achieve completely different fields, based on Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. As a better schooling advertising and marketing agency and award-winning design company, RNL was a super selection as a job shadowing companion.
When Kirkwood helps join classroom studying to real-world alternatives, the outcomes communicate for themselves:
- 98% of job shadow/internship college students mentioned their expertise offered priceless data concerning their profession pursuits.
- 67% mentioned their expertise positively influenced their choice to stay and work in Iowa.
Job shadows give teenagers a sneak peek into what it’s prefer to work in knowledgeable setting. They provide a possibility to fulfill folks, make connections, and probably land internships and even future jobs.
Becoming a member of forces with RNL
Kirkwood’s Workplace Learning Connection first teamed with RNL’s content material writing providers and design technique group six years in the past to show college students to advertising and marketing for increased schooling and fundraising ways.
As Kirkwood advertises the RNL digital shadowing day: “Use your creative powers for good! The idea behind artwork and design is for folks to react to your work. Get a optimistic response to a product and — increase! That’s advertising and marketing. Chat with graphic designers, content material writers and internet designers at Ruffalo Noel Levitz. Find out how they use their creative skills that can assist you make probably the most essential choices of your lives—the place to go to school.”
RNL’s experience in higher education marketing helps faculties and universities successfully appeal to, interact, and enroll college students. Our intensive expertise in marketing strategy for fundraising advantages non-profits and universities. We believe sharing our collaborative and creative course of encourages youthful folks to pursue rewarding careers at design and advertising and marketing businesses.
Every year, highschool college students from seven Iowa counties register to pay attention, ask questions, and search steerage about future positions in advertising and marketing. In flip, RNL creative group members share our work and the explanations we selected our career.
Serving to the subsequent era
Jolie Baskett has been the glue for the RNL job shadow group for years—this yr, Sarah Reimer and I additionally participated.
“Six years in the past, I volunteered as a result of I needed to be the assistance that I wanted once I was younger,” she mentioned. Since then, she has superior from designer to senior designer to director of design.
“I really like working with great shoppers and types and serving to others. I wish to assist the subsequent era discover their paths and be one of the best they are often,” she mentioned. Personally, I’m a former highschool instructor and am obsessed with writing and public talking, so I raised my hand a number of years in the past to share my enthusiasm for writing with these highschool college students. As I inform them, efficient writing and clear communication are important to each profession.
Senior Designer Sarah Reimer enjoys working with RNL’s collaborative creative group. She needs highschool college students to know graphic design is a aggressive trade, however there’s room for everybody.
“It’s essential that we share our experiences and experience with the subsequent era of creatives arising, getting them excited to be creative as a profession, find out about collaboration, and easy methods to work on a group,” mentioned Reimer. “These are job abilities they will apply wherever.”
Listening and studying
Throughout a 90-minute presentation, our RNL group shares our experiences and solutions questions from college students, starting from broad queries like “What recommendation would you give an aspiring author?” to rather more particular questions like “How do you code for accessible internet design?”
design challenge at her pc” class=”wp-image-58134″ srcset=”https://www.ruffalonl.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NOwnens_JobShadowing_2_600x400.jpg 600w, https://www.ruffalonl.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/NOwnens_JobShadowing_2_600x400-300×200.jpg 300w” sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px”/>The proof is within the pudding. Right here’s what three college students needed to say about our presentation:
- “I discovered quite a bit about what particularly a creative advertising and marketing job would entail, and I additionally discovered there are a number of various kinds of jobs inside this subject (coder, author, designer).”
- “It helped me consider what courses I must get into for various careers.”
- “I favored with the ability to ask questions on their day-to-day work and what precisely their obligations are.”
Refreshing views
All three of us agree that seeing our expertise by contemporary eyes helps us admire our roles in a brand new perspective. Plus, after we assist others, it’s a significant strategy to contribute to each the workforce and the neighborhood.
As we seemed again by the years and thought of ourselves as youngsters, all of us had recommendation for our highschool selves:
Baskett was an artwork child her whole life and at all times had a drive to make the world a extra stunning place. To her teenage self, she’d say, “Imagine in your self.”
I knew I needed to turn into a author in fifth grade. I fell in love with function writing and served as newspaper editor in highschool. I’d inform my 17-year-old self: “You’re obsessed with telling different’s tales. Do what you’re keen on.”
As for Reimer? Artwork wasn’t on her radar when she started school as a legislation enforcement main, earlier than pivoting to graphic design. She would inform that school freshman: “You can make a profession and assist your self being creative. Study to be assertive, settle for constructive criticism, and have enjoyable letting that creative thoughts do its job!”
