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Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
Groundhog Job Shadow Day
DOL
Auditorium
Feb. 1, 2002 1:30 p.m.
Thank you all so much for being here today… what a wonderful event!
I’d like to start out by thanking all of the students who
participated today –from the Potomac and Woodland Job Corps Centers and
from Edison Friendship Junior Academy.
I’d also like to thank and recognize Assistant Secretary Emily
Stover DeRocco and her staff in ETA, particularly Susie Casal and Felicia Ward
from the ETA Office of Public Affairs. 
I know that the DOL Ground Hog Shadow Day committee worked very hard on
this, and I commend you all on the success of the day.
Thanks, too, to Lorenzo Harrison from the Office of Youth Services,
Richard Trigg, the National Director of Job Corps and Charlene Drew Jarvis,
President of Southeastern University, Susie Casal and the rest of the ETA
Public Affairs staff who organized the event.
I also want to say a special ‘hello’ to Sarah Haynie from the
Potomac Job Corps – Sarah was assigned to spend the day with me, but due
to my schedule and a major policy announcement made today with the President,
Sarah ended up spending the day with my scheduling staff. Sarah, I hope you had
a great day.
Indeed, I hope you all had a wonderful day. This was our 4th
annual Ground Hog Shadow Day here at the Department of Labor. This event is
extremely relevant to what we do here because it promotes jobs.
There is no better way to see how true it is that learning happens in
the workplace, not just in the classroom. It also illustrates how all of those
things you learn at school are put into action on the job.
Of course, I love any event that involves Job Corps, one of the
Department of Labor’s most successful programs. We actually have here in
the audience a Job Corps success story who I’d like to recognize: Lois
Best.
Lois came here to the Labor Department as a Job Corps student in January
of 1972. By April of that year she’d been hired as a permanent employee,
and she’s been here ever since!
Today she is the Administrative Officer and Staff Assistant for the
Office of Apprenticeship Training, Employer and Labor Services division. Lois,
we are so happy to have you here.
To the current Job Corps students and Edison Friendship students here
today -- I want you to know that your participation in this puts you in a
special group. You are more likely to finish high school, obtain a college
degree and to seek a job while you are finishing your high school education.
And I hope that today gave you a glimpse of what you have to look
forward to. I have always felt that work is fun and rewarding.
Think of it this way: Like school, you learn at work. Like school, you
make friends at work. And unlike school: you get paid for working!
And to the Labor Department employees who mentored students today, I
want to thank you. You did a good thing today, something that is very much a
part of our “cause” here at the Labor Department.
After all, preparing students helps keep unemployment numbers low –
which is what DOL is all about.
I also see it as part of your 4,000 hours the President called for in
his State of the Union address this week.
The value of volunteerism cannot be underestimated. We grow and improve
as a country and as a community when we share, when we give. You
did that today, and you are to be commended for it. 
Job Corps students know the value of giving as well as anyone. Their
contributions after 9/11 were tremendous – giving blood, money, aid at the
World Trade Center site.
I’d like to close with some general, unsolicited advice for the
young people here today:
· Do what you love;
· Work very hard;
· Know the people you work with, respect them, be kind;
· Enjoy your education. Learning is fun. Love it.
· Never stop learning. You will learn from each job you have.
Again, thank you all for participating in this special day. I hope it
was rewarding for everyone involved.
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_________________________________________________________________
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