U.S. Army Operational Test Command directors Bill Adams and Bill McKiernan were pretty sure no high school students would want to follow them around for a day to see what they did for a living.

Adams, Methodology and Analysis Directorate, and McKiernan, Maneuver Test Directorate, are responsible, collectively and individually, for conducting operational tests on armor and infantry equipment and systems and analyzing the data harvested from these tests. Their teams comprise soldiers and Department of the Army civilian employees who are engineers, scientists, mathematicians, statisticians—in short, highly technical folks.

The directors' question was, "A lot of this is pretty dry stuff, so how do we make that relevant to a high school junior and senior?"

In the end, Ellison High School senior Alexander Feliciano and junior Deion Shields found it fairly easy to see the relevance in what Adams and McKiernan do while shadowing them during the 16th annual Groundhog Job Shadow Day on Jan. 25.

"My day was very interesting," said Feliciano, who was Adam's shadow. "I got to attend a class with some of the staff, and then they took me to a technical lab where they are involved in modeling and simulation work."

Feliciano, whose primary interest is mechanical engineering, said he would also consider studying graphic design. A member of EHS's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, he's pretty sure he wants a career in the Air Force, he said.

Shields, McKiernan's shadow, is a junior JROTC cadet. Also putting engineering at the top of his career list, he said his experience at the test command gave him a better idea of what leaders do.

"Getting to sit in on the OTC commander's staff meeting was very interesting," he said. "The (Operational Test Command) commander (Col. Promotable Laura J. Richardson) made us feel welcome, and it helped me understand all the planning that goes into running an organization."

Groundhog Job Shadow Day, sponsored each year by the City of Killeen Volunteer Services and the Greater Killeen Chamber of Commerce (GKCC), aims to demonstrate the connection between academics and careers by connecting students with professionals to help them prepare to join the workforce, according to Heather Nussbaum, GKCC event coordinator.

"We had one-hundred and thirty students and one-hundred and five mentors participate this year," Nussbaum said. "We especially needed mentors in the engineering, communications and law enforcement career fields."

Wilfred Brewster, City of Killeen director of volunteer services, said having professionals mentor students by offering them knowledge and expertise expands the students' knowledge, understanding and awareness of potential career opportunities.

"Every year we ask professionals, even those who never thought a student would want to be them, to participate in this event," Brewster said. "We are so very thankful for everyone who agrees to give their time to the students because one never knows how much a difference in students' lives that time will make."

Adams and McKiernan both agreed that their participation in Groundhog Job Shadow Day was rewarding and time well-spent. "We probably got more out of it than the students did," Adams said with a chuckle.