JOB SHADOWING ST. VINCENT

Hello, I’m Jade from Italy and I was one of the two job shadowers for the project Ocean Protection that took place in the beautiful Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Before this opportunity was presented to me, I admit I’ve never heard of the word “job shadowing” before, so I was even more interested in knowing about this role. 

The representative of High On Life association explained me that this role consists of helping and supporting the hosting organization in all the activities before and during the project. Also, we were supposed to be the point of reference between the participants, the hosting organization and the sending organization, managing the whole group and making sure that all the participants were properly involved in all the scheduled activities.

In order to accomplish our tasks in the best way, Richmond Vale Academy welcomed me and my colleague Alice 5 days before the start of the project. During that time we were able to meet with the chiefs of the academy, the teachers, the group leaders, the coordinators of the activities that presented us the program so we could discuss and adjust it. We also had the opportunity to connect with people who weren’t strictly linked with our projects such as the local gardeners, fishermen and shepherd, whom taught us a lot about Saint Vincent and we happily shared our knowledge with the participants once they arrived. 

Once the participants reached RVA we welcomed them in their rooms and explained them all the rules of the academy, we also did a tour around the premises. They had to do a 3 days quarantine that consisted of wearing a mask in the common spaces and they couldn’t go to the kitchen, so me and Alice brought them food during breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The initial activities of the project were really successful because the group connected and became united since day 1. Especially because us participants from Italy and Lithuania were super curios and excited to make friends from SVG, and of course the Vincy guys were excited as well to meet us. Throughout the project us job shadowers always reported the feedbacks of the participants to the organizers, which were always positive. 

We are so grateful to have done such an amazing experience, because we learned a lot and we met extraordinary people that we will never forget.