''That was the best day of my life!''

That was the first thing Giovanni said after returning from his job shadow at Wieden+Kennedy. Giovanni, along with 12 other youth, participated in the first annual Groundhog Day Job Shadow on February 2nd and 3rd, and as you can tell, had a great time.

It wasn't easy though: youth were required to participate in a 2 hour training on Thursday evening, had to be present at 8:00 on Friday morning (a no school day for those in the Portland Public School District), and after the job shadow they attended a recap with the rest of the group. The training, led by Step It Up volunteer Lea McLeod, covered topics like how to act professionally in the workplace, what questions to ask, and how to dress appropriately. Following Thursday's training, youth met at the Lloyd Center on Friday morning then headed out to their job shadow sites, impressing the businesses.

"The students were very engaged and really wanted to be here. I wasn't expecting them to be so professional," one host from Umpqua Bank commented.

"Love the curiosity of their minds!" Another noted.

"It was a delight to see the Nike world through the eyes of Jordan. He is a great kid and it was a pleasure to host him," a Nike host said.

After the job shadows, youth returned to the Lloyd Center. Despite a busy day, they were excited to talk about their experience and spent the next couple hours enjoying lunch (which was generously donated by Bellagios Pizza), sharing their job shadow experience, and ending with a wonderful presentation by Lou Radja.

Mr. Radja spoke about achieving success in your life, saying "success is what you do after you do what's expected of you." That is what these youth did at the job shadow: they participated, they were engaged, and they did something beyond what was expected. So congratulations to all our youth on a successful experience!

You can check out more photos from the event on Step It Up's Facebook page -->>