Seventh and eighth graders started out in the Lewiston Middle School cafeteria on Friday, February 6, then they split in two groups. One group went to CMMC. The other, that’s my group,went to TD Banknorth. The TD Banknorth group piled into a bus and left the school. We went to the bank behind Bates Mill. Mr. Rick Myers was our chaperone, and he led us into the main office. From there, some workers from the bank brought us to a large meeting room. We talked to a woman about first impressions. She said it was important to look your best and to look the person in the eye during a handshake.

Each student then went with one staff member. My staff member was Danielle Trudeau, and she was amazing! We walked around her office area, and I met everyone who worked with her. Then we went back to her office. She told me she was a consumer loan researcher. Danielle said she gives loans and does loan due date extensions and changes. She also fixes account mistakes and answers questions. “At TD Banknorth, we want to wow our customers,” Danielle said. We had to go to the file room, which was really cool because it had account information since last year. At 11:30, we had to go back to the conference room. We had a lunch of pizza and soda, then we talked to another person. He told us about how there is more to banks than the regular branches, and that a bank can’t survive without them “behind the scenes” as he put it.

With a group photo and free pens, the TD Banknorth group of students then piled into the bus to get back to school. We went back to the cafeteria and wrote thank you letters to the person whom we job shadowed. We got to stay in the cafeteria for the rest of the day to discuss the successes of the day. It was fun. Mrs. Billie-Jo Brito, the Career Preparation class teacher, told us that she wanted us to see if banking was a possible career for us and to learn more about how school is important in the job world. Every 7th and 8th grader had only positive comments, so thank you TD Banknorth for making our trip a huge success.

On February 6, 2009 some students got to go to Central Maine Medical Center during school for a field trip. when we got there we were greeted by different people who work there. We were broken down into groups of four or less. Some went to the cafeteria, others to the Human Resources, and everyone ended up going with somewhere.

There were about 28 students who went to CMMC. I went to Human Resources. Adam and I went with Tom to see what he does there. I also met with Teresa and Katy. Tom, Katy, and Teresa interview people who want to work at Central Maine Medical Center. It is a really long process. Mrs. Brito arranged this whole thing for a number of students to attend.

Adam and I were able to go onto the computers and make an application to work over there. There are so many applications that come in that not all people get a job there. We stayed there for lunch and had pizza, chips, cookies, and water, milk, or juice. When we got back to school, we went into the cafeteria and wrote letters to the person who showed us around. We wrote a rough draft, then we had Mrs. Brito correct it.

Once we were done with that, we gave the letters to her so that she could mail them. A special thanks to Mrs. Brito and the hosts at Central Maine Medical Center.