Many students are finding opportunities to explore the careers they are interested in, both through in-school and out-of-school internships.
The process of finding internships can be difficult and time consuming, but can have fruitful results with the proper time placed towards it.
Sophomore Akyla Osterhaus took the time to find a career-relevant internship to apply to.
“I had to do a lot of digging,” Osterhaus said. “I looked for internships at places like the Children’s Hospital Philadelphia, NIH, Mayo Clinic, UPMC… and most of the ones I wanted to do were either not running, or I was ineligible to apply. So I found the one at Mayo Clinic, and it fit for me.”
Other students are able to tie internships into their high school education. This is frequently done through the xareer practicum course that is offered to seniors. Career practicum has two ways for students to be involved: the outside-of-district community-based course and the within-district education course.
Business teacher Jocelyn Ruppert leads the course and has seen a variety of internships take place.
“Anything from education all the way to firefighting,” Ruppert said. “I have people that have done sports marketing. I have done people who have done things in the mortuary science. So it’s… a full gamut of different things.”
Another way internships impact students is through providing confirmation for whether a considered field is truly the direction someone wants to go in.
Senior Juliana Parrish’s placement at Shrewsbury Elementary for the education program has been this confirmation for her.
“It’s definitely confirmed that I, for sure, want to go into the teaching field,” Parrish said. “I wasn’t sure what grade level, but I definitely want to be in first grade now that I’ve seen that.”
Even if an internship proves to change a student’s intended plans, Ruppert still believes the experience provides important stepping stones to furthering education, especially in relation to admissions.
“I think a lot of colleges are looking for well-rounded students,” Ruppert said. “They’re looking for kids who can not only hold [themselves] up in a good academic setting, but they can also hold themselves up in a workplace environment. They have those different soft skills, transferable skills that are always really valuable.”
Ruppert has also seen internships prepare students with the necessary skills and knowledge for success in their prospective career field. This especially supports students in the community-based program.
“It’s like a lot of networking opportunities,” Ruppert said. “Things that you can put on your resume because employers don’t, they want to know that you know things, but they also want to know that you’ve experienced things, and so for them putting on their resume that they’ve had 125 hours of experience doing marketing or business work or things like that really makes them a much more valuable candidate and makes them much more marketable.”
