East Ridge High School Internship Program

East Ridge High School’s internship program allows students to gain confidence, networking skills and, most importantly, real-world work experience.

By: Nancy Eike | From the issue: February 2012

East Ridge internship program participants

Photo: Lauren Carpenter

East Ridge High School internship program participants.

Many things need to be learned from a textbook while sitting at a desk inside a schoolhouse; many things also need to be learned in the real world, in the trenches, so to speak. The Related Service Occupations and Business Internship and Seminar, a program for seniors at East Ridge High School who are interested in business/marketing or health/education careers, is the perfect amalgam of both classroom training and hands-on experience, letting students test-drive a job that could ultimately be their career of choice.

On any given day, the 50 students involved in the program might be attending new product meetings at hair salons, helping with scheduling at coffee shops, transporting patients who are dealing with cancer at an area hospital, or a variety of other tasks at a myriad of other businesses.

“The kids learn 21^st century skills like problem solving, customer service, teamwork, critical thinking, networking and all the soft skills they are going to need in the workplace as they move out into the world,” says Lynn O’Driscoll, teacher and facilitator who works with business and marketing students in the program.

The process to get involved is straightforward: Interested students attend a spring meeting and complete an application; once accepted, they take an interest test and create a training plan.

In addition to working a minimum of eight hours a week, the students attend two seminars per week on topics ranging from customer service to child labor laws. They create resumes, online portfolios and weekly journals, and in an effort to hone those valuable life skills, are encouraged to seek out the businesses they will intern with. Students also complete two projects per trimester that involve problem-solving in the workplace.

Emily Scovill, who is one of 17 in the business/marketing part of the program, works at a local coffee shop and is planning on attending the University of St. Thomas in the fall. She has recently started taking on additional responsibilities, including training new employees and helping with managerial tasks.

“Besides helping with everything from customer service skills to interviewing to how to work with different people,” she says, “the internship has also helped me to really think about what I want for a career.”