The Office of Student Services at Southeast Missouri State University is partnering with the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce to bring students Connect Cape: Job Shadowing Opportunity.

Connect Cape allows students to take part in a job shadow in order to explore careers they’re interested in by shadowing employers around the Cape Girardeau area to learn about and understand the everyday tasks required within their chosen career.

Kei-Shae McCrary, the retention specialist for TRIO/Student Support Services, said one of the main goals of the program is to help students understand what field they really want to go into. McCrary said the average student changes their major six times because they don’t know what they want to do in the future. Many students graduate with degrees they don’t want or wait until their junior or senior years to switch their majors, pushing back their graduation dates.

“We thought the best way to help the students is to connect them [to the community],” McCrary said. “If [students] have the opportunity to see what they’re dream job looks like, they know the tedious work and the work no one talks about. All you see if the complete work, not the details that are in between.”

Other benefits, McCrary added, include networking opportunities and an understanding of needed skills.

Shad Burner, vice president of business development at the Chamber of Commerce, said the role of the chamber has been to coordinate employers to participate in the opportunity and better expose the business opportunities for Southeast graduates.

“This is a way for a student to test drive a career, see what it’s like really turn it over and shake it a little bit and make sure this is the path they really want to go down and to understand what it’s like outside the classroom,” Burner said. “It’s impossible to know that until you get out and do that.”

Burner said he hopes the opportunity will give students a better chance at staying in the Cape Girardeau area.

The Chamber has approximately 1,500 members in industries ranging in manufacturing to medical and can meet the needs of a variety of Southeast students and graduates, but, according to Burner, only approximately 20 percent of Southeast graduates stay in the Cape Girardeau area once their time at Southeast is done.

“It would be a shame if they left without knowing what we have to offer,” Burner said. “Cape isn’t for everyone, but it has something for many people and we want to be sure that students know what’s out there before they decide not to stay in Cape.”

Burner and McCrary said the job-shadowing experience depends on the questions a students asks and engagement a student has with their employer.

“It’s about making a connection and learning about what’s out there,” Burner said.

Students of all majors and disciplines have the opportunity to participate in Connect Cape. Students must have completed 30 credit hours, have a 2.75 grade point average and be enrolled full time. After applications are submitted, the Chamber of Commerce will match selected students to an available employer. Students will be notified in January of 2017.

To apply, students can visit semo.edu/asc/connect-cape. Students must submit a reference questionnaire, which can be found at semo.edu/acs/connect-cape-questionnaire.