The WHS Senior Internship program offers soon-to-be graduates a chance to broaden their job experience and get ready for a career by spending most of their last three weeks of high school working in a field of their choice, supervised by an adult volunteer.
“I think that this [program] is something to give students a taste of a career they might be interested in or to do some volunteer work,” said business teacher and internship program coordinator Kelly Flynn.
The senior internship program has been in existence for decades at WHS, but the scope of the program has changed over the years.
“The senior internship program pre-dated me and my involvement. Initially, [the internships] were longer, and students took a class called Senior Seminar during 12th grade,” said Flynn. “Over time, the Senior Seminar was cut as a class, but the internship program continued.”
For seniors, the ability to match their internship with their interests is a huge plus. Senior Justin Kirk will be spending his internship at a drama program working with youth who are interested in drama and acting, which aligns with his goals for the future.
“I want to go into acting, and I think this is a great way to get on the training side and be behind the stage, directing,” Kirk said. “I want to get a little bit of [experience] in everything in the performing department.”
Other seniors look for internships in the business world to help them narrow such a broad field by trying out work in one aspect of this realm.
“I am the executive director of the school store already, and I think this internship [at the school store] will help me [in the future],” senior Max Burd said. “I intend on getting a job in the business area, so I think this will better help me understand and comprehend all the aspects of a business, especially a retail business.”
Some seniors feel that having internships can help them better their skills in a specific field they already know they want to pursue.
“I am helping sort files at a biotech company,” senior Siena Flanigon said. “I want to go into the medical world. I don’t know if I will necessarily go into biotech, but I think experience in biology is helpful.”
Senior internships are also one aspect of senior year that doesn’t have to align with the college application process because the participants have already finished that work. So they can pursue an internship just to fulfill personal goals rather than worrying about their resume.
“I think for this internship, I was seeing what I was interested in. I wasn’t thinking about what colleges would think, because I am already in college,” Flanigon said.
The flexibility the internship program offers also allows students to try out something new, even if it’s not necessarily what they want to do for the rest of their lives.
“I am working at a preschool with my aunt,” senior Siena Ferrucci said. “I think it will be good to interact with people of different age groups, but I don’t really want to go into that. I consider this to be more for life experience.”
Others have decided to pursue internships out of their chosen field of study to help them become more versatile.
“I am going to be helping Karina [Soto, WHS Tech Support] with MCAS,” said senior Nae Flowers. “I will help set up and take down [technology]. I think that this will be helpful to me in the future because I am learning something new that I won’t be learning with the psychology major I will be doing.”
Internships can also be a good way to learn a new skill that will be useful later in life.
“Learning how to do tattoos now is going to be really helpful for me in the future because I will be able to make money on the side for college. Along with that, I want to open my own tattoo shop in the future so this will be good,” senior Amani Lopes Mercury said.
The internship program offers many opportunities to students, whether it be for experience, to learn a new skill, or to practice something they want to pursue later in life.
