This first picture is of Jim Myers, vice president, creative director at Rhea & Kaiser Marketing Communications discussing integrated marketing communications with students from the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. Rhea & Kaiser hosted the students as part of the national Groundhog Job Shadowing Week. It’s a great idea to have students get a taste of the real world in a setting where they’re free to observe. I think I need to do some of this too.

This was the third year R&K invited high school students to its Naperville headquarters as part of Groundhog Job Shadowing Week, a national program that each February gives middle and high school kids a firsthand look at day-to-day life in the workplace. Helping prepare tomorrow’s leaders means taking time today to show the opportunities while encouraging them to stay in school and develop their skills,” said Steve Rhea, president and CEO of Rhea & Kaiser and a CHSAS advisory board member.

Students received an overview of R&K’s integrated marketing communications operations, as well as presentations from the agency’s Creative, Media, Production and Public Relations groups. A tour of the Naperville office followed.

Another Rhea & Kaiser staffer, Brooke Hepler, far right, got in the picture. She’s posing with eight students and a counselor from the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences.

R&K also has provided job shadowing and professional development opportunities for students from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Illinois Institute of Technology, The Ohio State University, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Northwestern University and the National FFA Organization. An internship at R&K is scheduled for 2007.