That's why members of the San Jose Rotary Club annually organize a vocational field trip for fifth-grade students from Washington Elementary School to visit downtown Willow Glen businesses to learn about different occupations.

Approximately a dozen Rotary members accompanied fifth-grade students in small groups to Bank of America, Washington Mutual, Long's Drugs, Victoria's Costume and Dance Supply, Casa Casa, Petroglyph, Saratoga Plumbing, Details and Pizza My Heart on March 29 and April 5.

Willow Glen resident and co-chairwoman of the Rotary's Youth and Family Services Committee Shelly McNamara said this is the club's eighth year leading the field trip and exposing children to career opportunities in a different neighborhood.

"For this particular age group, it's a wonderful time to catch kids and turn them on to options," McNamara said, referring to the lack of attention given to children who are transitioning toward middle school.

"[Ten- and 11-year-olds] are so responsive to attention and enjoy having people interact with them," she said.

McNamara said her group of students enjoyed the tour at Saratoga Plumbing because the students heard former 49er quarterback Jeff Garcia shopped there.

Research on children's learning has found that they love and remember what they do on field trips, said Rotary member and The Role Model Program executive director Marybeth Nacey.

"It's more like a spark," Nacey said. "Maybe they'd never thought they could open their own business."

Nacey said that in the group of five students she chaperoned, two had talked about becoming engineers, two wanted to teach and one wanted to be an archaeologist.

"They had a lot of good dreams," she said. "It's wonderful for them to see people in the community who care about their futures."

Willow Glen resident Dave Fleckles, a former schoolteacher and retired career education counselor from the San Jose Unified School District, who has been a member of the Rotary Club for 30 years, said he enjoyed seeing the children interact with the employers.

"It's always interesting to hear their questions," Fleckles said.

At Bank of America, personal banking associate Aaron Xavier showed the students the backside of an ATM and a bill-counting machine. Juan Figueroa, 11, asked if the bank could mint money, but Xavier said the bank's job was to count and store money.

Xavier told the children that Bank of America supports its employees' higher education goals by giving them $2,500 for college tuition.

"There's lots of ways you can pay for college," he said.

Saratoga Plumbing employee Thom Mercurio told Fleckles' group that paying attention can help a person advance in a job, and that like Saratoga Plumbing's owner, they could work their way up from being an employee to owning the business.

Mercurio let the students pick an item in the store and showed them how to use math skills to take 30 percent off the price and then add sales tax.

He also stressed the importance of neat handwriting on merchandise orders.

"If you didn't know reading, writing or math, could you do my job?" Mercurio asked the students. "If you work hard, it'll make your life easier when you're older," he said.

While having a slice of cheese pizza at Pizza My Heart, 11-year-old Jazmin Gonzalez said, "It was good because it shows us about business; what they learn, enjoy and need."

McNamara said, "They're fun kids. I hope some of it has made a difference."