BETHEL — Last year’s stints with a local veterinarian and an ambulance service affirmed senior Ashley Conkright’s career goal of working with animals.

During Telstar High School’s 29th annual Career Week many of the 65 juniors who are taking their turn in the program will also decide whether they want to pursue their current career choice or discover something they hadn’t thought about.

That’s the whole idea behind the school’s Career Week event, which kicked off Monday morning.

“Students are encouraged to go out,” Principal Dan Hart said.

At the launching event, many of the juniors learned how to seek a potential employer who will show them the ropes for at least 24 hours when the event starts in March.

Prior to that, the students have to find a local or other business that will take them on. They also must document their work and they must use their own initiative for all aspects of Career Week.

“We want the students to understand that this is one of those things that they will remember about their high school experience,” said Charles Raymond, dean of students at Telstar. “It’s just as important to find out what they don’t want to do.”

Successfully finding an employer to job shadow can also be a help in finding after-school or summer work, he said.

Ashley said her experience helped her decide to apply to Unity College for a major in wildlife care and education.

Juniors Shaun McKenzie and Cody Smith know what career paths they want to follow.

Shaun will shadow a recording studio manager and plans to attend the Berkeley College of Music in Boston for a career in choral music. Cody, who is also a Region 9 student in fire science and a junior firefighter with both the Rumford and Andover fire departments, plans to shadow a Rumford firefighter.

“I think Career Week is a good idea to get into the real world,” Cody said.

Katryna Kofton expects Career Week to be fun because she hopes to return to her former school in New Hampshire to job shadow a computer technology teacher while seeing some of her friends there.

Those students who successfully complete the on-the-job assignment, will earn one-quarter credit, a special cord on their graduation caps and an immense amount of experience. Raymond said a very high percentage of juniors satisfactorily complete their job-shadow project.

Science teacher Sarah Southam, a member of the six-teacher committee that leads the project, said many past students have had really great experiences, such as three who job-shadowed Bates College professors and those who learned about physical therapy at Stephens Memorial Hospital.

“One tried to connect with NASA because he wants to be an astronaut, but when he couldn’t, he job-shadowed a physics professor,” she said.

The next step for students is a meeting with advisors on Thursday or Friday to present a tentative plan, then a preliminary contract is due on Feb. 9 or 10. Other meetings will be scheduled as needed.

Southam hopes local businesses will contact the school, at 824-2136 if they are willing to have a student job shadow at their place of work.

“This is a huge deal,” Raymond said. “Career Week takes a lot of effort by the staff and the whole community.”

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