Doss High School Students Job Shadow AT&T Kentucky President and Employees in $100 Million Effort to Reduce School Drop-Out Rate

With 1.2 million American students dropping out of high school every year, AT&T * and Junior Achievement today announced the next phase of the AT&T / JA Worldwide Job Shadow Initiative. Approximately 60 students from Doss High School will participate in a local job shadowing session today with AT&T Kentucky President Mary Pat Regan and several other local employees.

The event is part of a multimillion dollar, multiyear job shadow program to help strengthen student success and workforce readiness. High school students “shadow” AT&T employees during their regular work day to see the educational background and skills they will need to succeed on the job.

“As a retired high school principal and vice chair of the House Education Committee, I know firsthand how important job shadowing is to our young people,” said State Rep. Charles Miller. “This partnership between our business, education and community leaders provides a great opportunity for learning and gives students a look into what it takes to make it in the workforce.”

“Doss High School is in my district and I want nothing more than to see these students succeed,” said Louisville Metro Councilman Doug Hawkins. “When students see how hard work in the classroom can pay off in the real world, it gives them added incentive to graduate and continue working toward their dreams.”

Recent findings from a report evaluating students who participated in the first year of the AT&T / JA Worldwide Job Shadow Initiative show the program is making an impact and changing attitudes about staying in school:

• All students felt that it is important to graduate from high school, and ninety-nine percent felt confident in their ability to do so months after participating in the program.
• Eighty-nine percent of students felt that participating in Job Shadow made them realize the importance of staying in school.
• Ninety-four percent indicated that they had improved their ability to set goals as a result of Job Shadow and 90 percent reported that they utilized this skill months after the program.
• Ninety-four percent agreed that their ability to identify occupations that interest them had improved as a result of Job Shadow and ninety-two percent had researched careers that interest them months after the program.

“We applaud Rep. Miller, Councilman Hawkins and Junior Achievement for all the work they do to help students succeed in the classroom and the workforce,” said Mary Pat Regan, president of AT&T Kentucky. “This is all about giving students more of the tools that they need to compete for good jobs.”

Jack E. Kosakowski, president of Junior Achievement USA, noted, “Job shadowing not only provides students with valuable workplace experience, it provides them with mentoring and role models. These experiences help prepare our young people to effectively compete with their peers from the U.S. and around the world as the global economy becomes increasingly interdependent and interconnected.”

“This opportunity to job shadow will help our students make career decisions and better prepare them for the workforce,” said Doss High School Principal Glenn Baete. “Job shadowing is a great way to learn and we are glad to have this opportunity available to our students.”

Many of the students dropping out of high school are dropping out despite the fact they have passing grades.  They simply don’t see the relevance of their school work today to their future life success.

That’s why the $5.5 million Job Shadow initiative is a key pillar of the AT&T Aspire program, one of the largest-ever corporate commitments to high school retention and workforce readiness. It provides a chance for students to explore potential future careers and connect classroom learning to real life opportunities.

The initiative is committed to reaching 100,000 high school students over five years. During the 2008-2009 school year, over 13,000 students in over 100 cities participated in the initiative.

For more information, contact:

Mike Marker

AT&T Public Affairs

317-989-7152

mm8963@att.com

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