Why Interning Could Be The Move

Interning is a great way to jumpstart students’ future careers as they can learn the ropes from mentors who work in the field they aspire to one day excel in. When one interns through CHS, it still counts as high school credit; however, they get to experience their potential future career in order to make a more informed decision.

Senior Lexi Lutton, who interns at Vale helping to teach Kindergarten, was asked if interning made her still want to choose teaching as a post-education career. She had this to say: “Last year I interned at the middle school, which showed me I definitely do NOT want to teach middle school. However, whilst working at Vale this year, it showed me that I really want to work with the younger crowd moving forward.” This is a significant aspect of interning that many students may overlook. It’s not a waste of time if you intern somewhere for a year and realize that it’s not for you, because learning that a career is not for you is just as important as knowing it is.

Interning experiences vary greatly, but Lexi walked through what the internship curriculum is like. She talked about how when she gets to Vale, she starts helping out with whatever she can. Then, about halfway through each day, her mentor will check in on her and make sure she’s on track. And then she just keeps helping out for the rest of the block, trying to absorb as much information as she can from her mentor.

An internship is a form of introduction to real-world work experience where students can learn to translate their classroom education to a professional work environment. When interning, students can expect to get professional instruction from mentors regardless of the field.  “At the end of the interning year, you put together a slide show of what you’ve learned and what you’ve done. You then present this slideshow to your counselor, Mrs. Fall, in my case,” Lexi said about wrapping up a year of internship.

A big problem with a lot of high school students is that they are  on the fence about whether or not to intern, and they will opt not to simply because they don’t want to try something new and would rather just stay in school all day, because that’s what they know. When asked what she would say to someone debating whether or not to do an internship, Lexi said, “Just go for it. Find a good internship site and a good mentor. You will not regret it as it is so fun to be in the real world and have responsibility!”