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Photo by Carson Glen, Photo Editor
Just outside of the Teacher's Academy classroom, a poster advertising the AHS-Great Oaks partnership is set up for prospective students to see.
Getting internship opportunities at the high school level can be a daunting task, but Anderson High School has numerous programs and opportunities that help students reach out into the workforce and test out their interests.
The first program that Anderson High School offers is Teachers Academy. In this program, students get hands-on experience in the teaching field. The class is available to juniors and seniors, but seniors have the opportunity to go to either an elementary school or Nagel Middle School to get hands-on experience teaching in a classroom with actual students.
“There are career links… Any career that relates to working with kids, students are going to have direct experience. Along with that, again, professionally communicating with their mentor allows them to practice adulting,” Mr. Lynch, Anderson’s Teacher Academy advisor, said.
This unique opportunity allows students to experience day-to-day life in the classroom, giving them multiple hands-on experiences before making future decisions.
Though this program is geared towards students that want to pursue a career in education, the experience, soft skills, and other various skills learned in this internship can be applied to other career paths.
“All across the board, I say at this point only about a third of them plan to go into education. But again, the internship experience mixed with the content that we do is hopefully transferable to any career,” said Lynch.
In addition to Teachers Academy, another in-house internship available to students is DECA. This course is designed to give students experience in the business world at a high school level.
In DECA, students are required to complete 150 hours of work experience. This could include a regular high school job, an internship, or a job/career shadowing experience.
“I’ve had students in the past at Proctor and Gamble, different marketing and branding companies around town, or law offices…it varies quite a bit,” Mr. Servis, AHS marketing and DECA teacher, said.
Students get the opportunity to explore what interests them and get a singled-out block of time to invest in themselves and their futures.
“Behind the internship is the idea that you are just actually seeing the real world and seeing what it takes from an interpersonal, soft-skill standpoint… you are kind of practicing the real world before you get into the actual real world,” said Servis.
As well as the two in-house internship opportunities, Anderson High School offers access to the XCL program, where students can get in touch with Mrs. Hartong, Forest Hills’s workforce development specialist, and explore job opportunities, internships, and programs outside of the classroom.
The Raptor Report has recently covered the XCL Program.
If interested in any of these opportunities, students can reach out to these advisors to get more information on assistance on obtaining these internships and opportunities.
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